Building pssh using Cygwin

This is how I build pssh on Windows XP, using Cygwin and prc-tools.

Install Cygwin

Firstly install Cygwin. When asked for the Download Site, enter http://prc-tools.sourceforge.net/install and click “Add”. Now choose this new site, and also choose a mirror close to you (Ctrl-click to select multiple sites in the list).

I find it easier to click the “View” button to get the “Full” listing of packages – a flat list, ordered alphabetically by package name. In addition to the packages that are installed by default, you will also need:

• gcc-g++
• make
• pilrc
• prc-tools
• prc-tools-arm

Palm SDK

I’ve always used a slightly older copy of the SDK, palmos-sdk-5.0r3-1.tar.gz. I’m not sure if this file is still available. An SDK is still available from Palm Developer Network, but I don’t think pssh can be built with it – not without modifying the code, anyway.

Create a directory in the Cygwin root called PalmDev, and unpack the SDK in there (which will create a directory called sdk-5r3).

Now you need to type palmdev-prep to make the dev tools find the SDK:

Checking SDKs in /PalmDev
  sdk-5r3       headers in 'include', libraries in 'lib'

When GCC is given no -palmos options, SDK '5r3' will be used by default

Writing SDK details to configuration files...
...done

Build pssh

Next you need to download:

• the pssh source code, from http://www.sealiesoftware.com/pssh/
• the peal source code, from http://www.sealiesoftware.com/peal/
• libc.a and libgcc.a

Unpack the two zip files somewhere. You’ll have two directories, pssh-source-2005_06_23 and peal-2005_4_14. Put the two .a files in the same directory.

pssh expects peal to be in a directory called peal, so rename peal-2005_4_14 to peal.

Go into peal/postlink, and build peal-postlink by typing make.

Now go into the pssh-source-2005_06_23 directory and build pssh by typing make. This should create pssh.prc, the Palm application.

Don’t worry about the final error:

open pssh.prc
make: open: Command not found
make: [install] Error 127 (ignored)

As long as you have pssh.prc, the build was successful.