I try to build a cross gcc compiler for an older ARM platform. Installing binutils was successful but gcc fails.

Host platform linux x86_64
binutils version to cross build:2.42
gcc version to cross build: 14.1.0

What I did ( sorry, very detailed, maybe I did something totally stupid… )

First, I created a docker image with the following Dockerfile to get a root filesystem:

FROM debian:8 as base
# Needed for old Debians
RUN printf "deb [trusted=yes] http://archive.debian.org/debian jessie mainndeb [trusted=yes] http://archive.debian.org/debian-security jessie/updates main" > /etc/apt/sources.list

# Install dependencies available in the Debian repos
RUN apt-get update && 
    apt-get install -y 
        build-essential automake libtool cmake wget 
        libsnmp-dev libdb-dev 
        libssl-dev 
        libopus-dev libasound2-dev vim 

podman build . --arch=arm

and export the file system to my host filesystem:

podman image mount

and copied the root filesystem simply with cp -pr <path>/* <some/place/at/my/host>

I now used a simple Makefile for installing binutils:

# cross compile binutils
BINUTILS_VERSION=2.42
GCC_VERSION=14.1.0

#http://ftp.fu-berlin.de/gnu/binutils/ binutils-2.42.tar.xz
binutils_cross:
        wget -nc http://ftp.fu-berlin.de/gnu/binutils/binutils-$(BINUTILS_VERSION).tar.xz
        tar xf binutils-$(BINUTILS_VERSION).tar.xz
        (
                cd binutils-$(BINUTILS_VERSION); 
                mkdir build_armv7 ; 
                cd build_armv7; 
                ../configure --prefix=/opt/armv7_$(GCC_VERSION) --with-sysroot=/opt/podman_debian8/merged --enable-multiarch --with-fpu=vfpv3-d16 --with-mode=thumb --with-arch=armv7-a --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf ; 
                make; 
                sudo make install; 
                )

binutils installation works without any error messages.

Now I tried to install gcc with this part of the install Makefile:

gcc_cross:
        wget -nc http://ftp.fu-berlin.de/gnu/gcc/gcc-$(GCC_VERSION)/gcc-$(GCC_VERSION).tar.xz
        tar xf gcc-$(GCC_VERSION).tar.xz
        ( 
                cd gcc-$(GCC_VERSION); 
                ./contrib/download_prerequisites; 
                mkdir build_armv7;
                cd build_armv7;
                ../configure --prefix=/opt/armv7_$(GCC_VERSION) --enable-languages=c,c++ --with-sysroot=/opt/podman_debian8/merged --enable-multiarch --with-fpu=vfpv3-d16 --with-mode=thumb --with-arch=armv7-a --target=arm-linux-gnueabihf --disable-multilib; 
                make -j6;
                sudo make install;
                )

Got following errors:

make[3]: *** [Makefile:2998: build/gengenrtl.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... /opt/armv7_14.1.0/arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/as: unrecognized option '--64'
make[3]: *** [Makefile:2998: build/genhooks.o] Error 1
/opt/armv7_14.1.0/arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/as: unrecognized option '--64'
make[3]: *** [Makefile:2998: build/sort.o] Error 1
gcc -E
/opt/armv7_14.1.0/arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/as: unrecognized option '--64'
make[3]: *** [Makefile:2998: build/genchecksum.o] Error 1
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /usr/bin/grep
checking for egrep... /usr/bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
/bin/sh ../../gcc/../move-if-change tmp-optionlist optionlist
checking for stdlib.h... echo timestamp > s-options
make[3]: Leaving directory '/home/krud/compiler_install/gcc-14.1.0/build_armv7/gcc'
make[2]: *** [Makefile:4714: all-gcc] Error 2

I wonder why I see the unrecognized option '--64' message, as I try to cross build for arm32.

Did I use some wrong configure options or have missed some? Maybe already in the first step while installing binutils?