To compile osmocomBB or SIMtrace for the target we need a GNU Toolchain for ARM.
There are various pre-compiled toolchains available but not all of them will produce working firmware.
We will try to support all these configurations but it might take a while to identify the source of a problem.

If you have persistent errors when compiling, try using a different package.

'''note:''' ~_{as of 2013-10-20, if you use a toolchain with gcc >=4.8, the firmware can be compiled, but will hang as soon as you want to sync to an ARFCN.}~ This issue has been [http://cgit.osmocom.org/osmocom-bb/commit/?id=a903b3c1ee27047c79728b18ff6340d23d1aad2e fixed] in master.

=== Build one from source ===

If you want to build your own toolchain, known to be working with OsmocomBB, see here: [wiki:GnuArmToolchain].

This is the best option to get a fairly recent GCC, and this is the option used by several Osmocom-BB developers.

=== Mac OS X ===

Apparently the arm-elf-gcc 4.3.2 from ports for mac os x can compile the sourcecode as well after symlinking /opt/local/bin/arm-elf-ranlib to /opt/local/bin/arm-elf-linux-ranlib and /opt/local/bin/arm-elf-strip to /opt/local/bin/arm-elf-linux-strip.
If you omit the links, there will be unresolvable references to symbols in the libraries.