title: MIPS Hex Output
body: <p>I'm wondering if there is a way to write MIPS assembly language file (just really simple test file) with a .s extension like is used with the PCSpim simulator and then have it actually compile the code and produce a file with the hex output as if I were to load it onto an actual MIPS chip.</p>
  
  <p>Can SPIM or some other similar software do this? Can you explain a little more about the assembly process from MIPS assembly to the actual executable that the microcontroller uses?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> So I'm running on ubuntu linux with gcc installed. I have a mips file mipsTest.s that is the following</p>
  
  <pre><code> .text
   add $7, $0, $0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now at the command line I type </p>
  
  <pre><code>gcc -c -o mipsy.o mipsTest.s
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And the error that I get says </p>
  
  <pre><code>mipsTest.s: Assembler messages:
  mipsTest.s:2: Error: at most 2 immediate operands are allowed.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So to me that means that the assembler is not reading the mips language, it is probably assuming my assembly file is in x86? How do I get a cross compiler setup so that gcc will recognize the MIPS assembly language instead of x86? (or whatever its interpreting my mipsTest.s file as right now) Thanks!</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 2:</strong> So I googled "mips cross-assembler" and found a few things. The one that seemed most promising was the umps cross-assembler project on sourceforge. So I downloaded umps2.0 which is supposed to be a stable version. I untarballed it any ran the "./configure" as instructed in the readme file. Then my console gave me the following error which prevents me from running the make command... </p>
  
  <pre><code>jonathan@mini-heiretic:~/Documents/cross-compiler/umps-2.0$ ./configure
  checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
  checking for gcc... gcc
  checking whether the C compiler works... yes
  checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
  checking for suffix of executables... 
  checking whether we are cross compiling... no
  checking for suffix of object files... o
  checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
  checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
  checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
  checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
  checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
  checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
  checking for ANSI C header files... yes
  checking for sys/types.h... yes
  checking for sys/stat.h... yes
  checking for stdlib.h... yes
  checking for string.h... yes
  checking for memory.h... yes
  checking for strings.h... yes
  checking for inttypes.h... yes
  checking for stdint.h... yes
  checking for unistd.h... yes
  checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
  checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
  checking whether build environment is sane... yes
  checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
  checking for gawk... gawk
  checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
  checking for style of include used by make... GNU
  checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
  checking for g++... g++
  checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
  checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
  checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
  checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
  checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
  checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
  checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
  checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
  checking whether ln -s works... yes
  checking how to print strings... printf
  checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
  checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
  checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
  checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
  checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
  checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
  checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
  checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
  checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
  checking how to convert i686-pc-linux-gnu file names to i686-pc-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
  checking how to convert i686-pc-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
  checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
  checking for objdump... objdump
  checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
  checking for dlltool... no
  checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
  checking for ar... ar
  checking for archiver @FILE support... @
  checking for strip... strip
  checking for ranlib... ranlib
  checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
  checking for sysroot... no
  checking for mt... mt
  checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
  checking for dlfcn.h... yes
  checking for objdir... .libs
  checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
  checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
  checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
  checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
  checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
  checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
  checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
  checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
  checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
  checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
  checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
  checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
  checking whether to build static libraries... yes
  checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
  checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld
  checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
  checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
  checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
  checking if g++ static flag -static works... yes
  checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
  checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
  checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
  checking dynamic linker characteristics... (cached) GNU/Linux ld.so
  checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
  checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
  checking for ld used by gcc... (cached) /usr/bin/ld
  checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... (cached) yes
  checking for elf_version in -lelf... no
  configure: error: *** Libelf not found. Specify a different path or install it. --help for info.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Are there any better options I should try or can anyone provide input on my error?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 3:</strong> After downloading Libelf, I can now get a little further in the configure script for umps. Here is the output starting from the newly successful elf_version line</p>
  
  <pre><code>checking for elf_version in -lelf... yes
  checking for dlopen in -ldl... yes
  checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
  checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
  checking for SIGCPP... no
  configure: error: Package requirements (sigc++-2.0) were not met:
  
  No package 'sigc++-2.0' found
  
  Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
  installed software in a non-standard prefix.
  
  Alternatively, you may set the environment variables SIGCPP_CFLAGS
  and SIGCPP_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
  See the pkg-config man page for more details.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So I ran a quick sudo apt-get install sigc++-2.0 but couldn't find the package... suggestions?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT 4:</strong> Here's the error I get when I try to use the Makefile</p>
  
  <pre><code>jonathan@mini-heiretic:~/Documents/cross-compiler/dwelch67-pic32_samples-f34fb22/blinker01$ make
  mips-sde-elf-as -EL -G0 --warn --fatal-warnings blinker01.s -o blinker01.o
  make: mips-sde-elf-as: Command not found
  make: *** [blinker01.o] Error 127
  </code></pre>