Note: rewriting in progress to qt-6.7.2
Qt6 (6.7.2) packages can simply be installed on NetBSD via the package manager (pkgin) but other platform specific installations need to be installed manually. These are my notes on what I achieved and a cheatsheet for myself. I'll try to improve it to make a guide of this page. Feel free to share your experience to make this description better.
Contents:
- Qt Emscripten
- Qt Android
- Qt Creator
- Current state
-install clang, binaryen, llvm, lld (llvm linker), nodejs, npm packages, python3, perl, qt6 (having the same version of qt source for wasm and the installed native is important) via pkgin
-download and install emsdk: https://emscripten.org/docs/getting_started/downloads.html
git clone https://github.com/emscripten-core/emsdk.git
cd emsdk
-installing qt wasm according to: https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/wasm.html
-edit emsdk.py and change the check for the LINUX system (to set a variable called LINUX to true) to let NetBSD pass the condition: if not MACOS and (platform.system() == 'NetBSD')
-Install the specified version listed for qt-6.7:
./emsdk install 3.1.50
./emsdk activate 3.1.50
-usually a linux specific nodejs gets installed as well in the node directory and the prebuilt binaries are for linux in emsdk/upstream/bin, so rename the prebuilt bin directory to emsdk/upstream/o_bin and set a symlink to the native node binaries in /usr/pkg/bin as emsdk/upstream/bin and also rename emsdk/node/20.18.0_64bit/bin and set a symlink to /usr/pkg/bin. No clue why setting (see later) LLVM_ROOT and NODE_JS are not enough to override looking up the binaries in there but that's how it seems to work.
-WARNING: 'source emsdk/emsdk_env.sh' does NOT set the envvars correctly
-check emsdk/.emscripten and create a script (which needs to be run via source command) to set them via exports like (replacing user name with yours):
export NODE_JS=node
export LLVM_ROOT=/usr/pkg/bin
export BINARYEN_ROOT=/homer/r0ller/binaryen
export EMSCRIPTEN_ROOT=/home/r0ller/emsdk/upstream/emscripten
export TEMP_DIR=/home/r0ller/emsdk/tmp
export COMPILER_ENGINE=$NODE_JS
export JS_ENGINES=[$NODE_JS]
export EMSDK=/home/r0ller/emsdk-3.1.50
-to see if it works fine run:
emcc -v
-Later this file shall replace ~/.emscripten and emsdk/.emscripten without the export commands and apostrophing the values like: NODE_JS='node'
-when it comes to downloading the qt6 source (don't worry about cloning qt5 in the next step, qt itself mentions this strange stuff): https://wiki.qt.io/Building_Qt_6_from_Git
git clone git://code.qt.io/qt/qt5.git qt6
cd qt6
git switch 6.7.2
perl init-repository
-NOTE: set emscripten envvars, (and here it turns out that having the same version of qt source and the installed native is important) then:
./configure -qt-host-path /usr/pkg/qt6 -xplatform wasm-emscripten -nomake examples -prefix $PWD/qtbase
-once finished, build required modules:
cmake --build . -t qtbase
-names of other supported modules (https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/wasm.html#supported-qt-modules) can be found in the qt6 install dir (qtquickcontrols2 got moved inside qtdeclarative) and can be built in parallel like:
cmake --build . -t qtbase -t qtdeclarative
-set webassembly option: Help/About Plugins/Device Support
-set Emscripten SDK path in Tools/Options/Devices/WebAssembly
-in Tools/Options/Kits/Compilers set up a custom (using Add/Custom instead of Add/Emscripten) C/C++ compiler for emcc/em++ for the target: asmjs-unknown-unknown-emscripten-32bit with error parser Clang
-in Tools/Options/Kits/Qt Versions add the wasm compiled Qt qmake binary to configure a Qt Version
-in Tools/Options/Kits/Kits add a kit for the wasm Qt selecting the WebAssembly runtime as device type and specifying the custom emcc/em++ compilers for the wasm Qt version configured previously
-Create an empty Qt Quick project and build it (you may need to specify in the build step after qmake that QTC should use /usr/bin/make). It'll take long as emscripten compiles libc.a for the first time besides the project. Load the generated html in a browser. In case of chrome and firefox you'll get a CORS error which can be fixed (in firefox at least) by setting security.fileuri.strict_origin_policy to false in about:config.
-qt prerequisites: https://wiki.qt.io/Building_Qt_5_from_Git
git clone git://code.qt.io/qt/qt5.git
cd qt5
git checkout 5.15
perl init-repository
-useful sites with additional info:
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android.html
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android-building.html
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android-building.html#using-manual-installation
-based on this latter page, try this:
./configure -xplatform android-clang --disable-rpath -nomake tests -nomake examples -android-ndk <path/to/sdk>/ndk-bundle/ -android-sdk <path/to/sdk> -no-warnings-are-errors -android-abis arm64-v8a
-when first tried I had to change this but when tried later I did not need the next two lines so I think they can be skipped:
-used an uname symlink to an uname.sh in /h0me/r0ller/bin to mock Linux system info
-in qtbase/mkspecs/linux-g++/qplatformdefs.h replace: #include <features.h> with #include "/usr/include/g++/parallel/features.h"
-search for "not supported by Android" in qtbase/configure.pri and paste the lines relevant for Linux host in the appropriate condition in the if branch of that else section.
-gmake
-according to configure, 'gmake install' is a must but as I did not set any prefix, by default it will install to /usr/local so that needs to be created as root before gmake install. I cloned my qt source in the Android folder hoping that no install will be required in the end, so that turned out to be a mistake. Conclusion: SET A PREFIX
-set: ln -s /usr/pkg/bin/bash /bin/bash
-Configuring qt kit for android is pretty difficult and I only managed to get it work for NDK but the next steps describe what I tried.
-set the compiler used for compiling qt for android e.g.: /home/r0ller/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundle/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/clang++
-pages used for the configuration:
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/android-getting-started.html
https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-developing-android.html#specifying-android-device-settings
-as qt for Android requires a specific NDK version, you need to get the different components somehow for which I used this page: https://androidsdkoffline.blogspot.com/p/android-sdk-10-api-29-q-direct-download.html
-essential packages listed by creator: "build-tools;29.0.2" "ndk;21.1.6352462" "platform-tools" "platforms;android-29" "cmdline-tools;latest"
-setting up via sdkmanager:
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/pkg/java/openjdk8 //openjdk11 won't work!
-start sdkmanager in Android/Sdk/tools/bin, issue from any location: sdkmanager --sdk_root=/home/r0ller/Android/Sdk --version
-copy the specified android-ndk-r21b directory CONTENT, after unzipping it must be copied into the install directory which shall look like: /home/r0ller/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundle/
-android app build issues: type_traits.h not found
-set in the corresponding files <type_traits> to "llvm/Support/type_traits.h" and add INCLUDEPATH += /usr/pkg/include in project .pro file
-additional info: https://wiki.qt.io/Android
-may worth a try: set INCLUDEPATH if qt creator complains about the arm compiler manually set and wants the qmake compilere: /home/r0ller/Android/qt5/qtbase/mkspecs/android-clang
-set ANDROID_NDK_ROOT to your NDK root
-could not read qmake configuration file so I had to set it manually: /home/r0ller/Android/qt5-install/mkspecs/android-clang/qmake.conf
-used this as inspiration but no clue for what: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28684647/developing-a-qt-app-for-android-from-the-command-line/28692281
-openssl had to be installed, adding openssl libs to project still needs to be done -> not at all, api >=21 does not need openssl
-compiling from creator does not work maybe due to qt version seen erroneous by creator and seems that wrong qmake is picked
-BUT: if the command copied from effective qmake call (found on project build page) is issued in the debug-build directory (e.g. /home/r0ller/TW/gettere3/build-debug-Android/) produces the arm libs (after getting rid of system bin dirs in PATH):
~/Android/qt5-install/bin/qmake ~/TW/getttere3/getttere3/getttere3.pro -spec /home/r0ller/Android/qt5-install/mkspecs/android-clang CONFIG+=debug && /home/r0ller/Android/Sdk/ndk-bundle/prebuilt/linux-x86_64/bin/make
-create the directory defined in .pro for ANDROID_PACKAGE_SOURCE_DIR in the project directory (not the build directory) otherwise make apk will fail with "cannot find android sources"
-Another approach to build an android app is as follows:
-Set ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES like JAVA_HOME, add java path to PATH, ANDROID_SDK_ROOT, ANDROID_NDK_ROOT, etc. see: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/deployment-android.html
make apk
-it generated androiddeployqt like this is in the Makefile at the apk target: ~/Android/qt5-install/bin/androiddeployqt --input android-gettere3-deployment-settings.json --output /home/r0ller/TW/getttere3/build-getttere3-Android-Debug --android-platform android-29 --gradle
-gradle will fail due to unknown platform: netbsd error
-cd to the android-build directory within the project build directory and execute: gradlew tasks --stacktrace
-see for additional info: https://android.googlesource.com/platform/tools/base/+/studio-master-dev/build-system/gradle-core/src/main/java/com/android/build/gradle/internal/res/Aapt2MavenUtils.kt
-other pages about deployment:
https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/deployment-android.html
https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-deploying-android.html
-I installed Qt Creator from git current so my version is 4.14.0-beta1 (4.13.82)
-the steps I followed are described here: https://wiki.qt.io/Building_Qt_Creator_from_Git
git clone --recursive https://code.qt.io/qt-creator/qt-creator.git
export LLVM_INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/llvm (/usr/pkg without /bin)
mkdir qt-creator-build
cd qt-creator-build
qmake ../qt-creator/qtcreator.pro
gmake qmake_all
gmake -j<number-of-cpu-cores+1>
-there are some changes I hadd to apply which are listed below:
-this page gave the hint to set fno-rtti: http://clang-developers.42468.n3.nabble.com/undefined-reference-to-typeinfo-for-clang-ASTFrontendAction-td1848336.html
-this page gave the hint to set the following variable: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTCREATORBUG-17876?focusedCommentId=351818&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel QTC_NO_CLANG_LIBTOOLING=true
-finally, I set the -fno-rtti in the qtcreator.pro file according to this page: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qmake-variable-reference.html CONFIG+=rtti_off
-set in qt-creator/src/src.pro: QTC_NO_CLANG_LIBTOOLING = true
-set in qt-creator/src/tools/clangrefactoringbackend/clangrefactoringbackend.pro: QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += -fno-rtti (added after first QMAKE_CXXFLAGS)
-set in qt-creator/src/tools/clangpchmanagerbackend/clangpchmanagerbackend.pro: QMAKE_CXXFLAGS += -fno-rtti (added after first QMAKE_CXXFLAGS)
-if gmake stops, just restart it. it needs several turns to compile, mostly plugin builds fail
-LD_LIBRARY_PATH needs to be set if you don't install qtcreator
-I got an error on starting qtcreator(.sh) when I built qt5 myself but not when qt5 was installed via pkgin: qt.qpa.plugin: Could not find the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" reason: libqxcb.so is missing from /usr/pkg/plugins/platforms
-for all build steps I used gmake
-in case you want to install qt creator (probably gmake goes here as well):
make install INSTALL_ROOT=$INSTALL_DIRECTORY
-configuring kits in Qt creator to build android or emscripten targets is pretty difficult and I mostly managed to get some partial results by try and error so I have no specific notes on that. However, for emscripten there is a specific flag in qt creator settings that needs to be checked and I guess I found that described here at the Enabling the Webassembly plugin section: https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-setup-webassembly.html
-Native: everything I tried (both QtWidgets and QML) works fine except debugging but I have not even tried configuring it for the Qt Creator.
-Android: as mentioned eralier I cannot build an android app from qt creator as it seems Qt Creator does not pick the correct qmake but when I copy the effective qmake call and issue it on the command line then I get a successful build of the libraries. Unfortunately, I have not yet succeeded in building an apk of them.
-Emscripten: everything what I built as native could be built by emscripten as well.
-After getting tired of building an Android apk I decided to try to use an emscripten build of a QML UI with a native C++ backend on Android. Finally, I sketched a crossplatform architecture for Android, Node JS/Browser and native use cases. You can find a post about it on the Qt forum and the repo here:
https://forum.qt.io/topic/121354/crossplatform-desktop-android-browser-nodejs-architecture-sketch