Successfully Built ARM Cross Toolchain and Run Bare-Metal Program on QEMU

Tools Source Builder
1

Hello everyone,
I have successfully built an ARM cross-compilation toolchain from source and tested it by running a simple bare-metal program on QEMU.
Project Overview:
Built ARM toolchain (arm-none-eabi-gcc)
Created a minimal bare-metal setup using:
startup.s
linker.ld
hello.c
Compiled and linked the program without standard libraries (freestanding environment)
Executed the ELF binary using QEMU (versatilepb machine)
Output: The program successfully ran and printed: “Hello rtems!”
Key Learning: This helped me understand low-level system concepts including:
Cross compilation
Linker scripts
Bare-metal execution flow
QEMU emulation
I have uploaded the complete project here: GitHub - sakshamupadhy/arm-toolchain: cross compiler · GitHub
I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

Thank you.

Regards,

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Saksham

2

Hi Saksham,

I’m curious how this is relevant to RTEMS?

3

Hi,

Thank you for your question.

This work represents an initial step in my learning process toward RTEMS development. I focused on building the ARM cross-compilation toolchain from source and validating it by running a simple bare-metal application on QEMU. This helped me understand the low-level toolchain setup, linker scripts, and execution flow.

My intention is to use this setup as a foundation for working with RTEMS, including building RTEMS itself and running RTEMS-based applications on top of this environment.

I would appreciate any guidance or suggestions on how to proceed with integrating RTEMS into this workflow.

Thank you.

4

I see. I would suggest that you read 15. Source Builder — RTEMS User Manual 7.1023b8c (8th January 2026) documentation

5

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll go through the RTEMS Source Builder documentation and follow the recommended approach.
Appreciate the guidance.