Compile and install

In Chapter 1, Setting Up for the First Time, you learned the magical apt-get install routine to get a package that you want on your BeagleBone Black. However, you've already encountered situations where you wanted a package (typically abbreviated as pkg) and the repository came up with nada: E: Unable to locate package xyz. This often implies that there is no precompiled binary for you to install, which means that we now have to put on our big girl and big boy boots and compile from source files.

Building software from original source files is one of the prerequisites when you work with SOCs, such as BeagleBone Black. This is true in part because the BBB is a Linux environment. Many software applications have to be compiled in order to use them. However, it's also a fact that you will often want a version of a tool that doesn't come with a packaged binary to suit your use case or the prototype that you'll build. Native packages (in our case, the armh packages) are almost...