Error building package under WSL2/Ubuntu20.04

huanchunye · 2020-10-31T17:29:46.788Z

I run into the following error when trying to build a package under WSL2/Ubuntu20.04:

autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'
(cd /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/./; if [ -x ./configure ]; then find /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/ -name config.guess | xargs -r chmod u+w; find /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/ -name config.guess | xargs -r -n1 cp --remove-destination /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/scripts/config.guess; find /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/ -name config.sub | xargs -r chmod u+w; find /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/ -name config.sub | xargs -r -n1 cp --remove-destination /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/scripts/config.sub; AR="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc-ar" AS="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc -c -Os -pipe -mno-branch-likely -mips32r2 -mtune=24kc -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -Wno-error=unused-but-set-variable -Wno-error=unused-result -msoft-float -iremap/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0:c-ares-1.13.0 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-protector -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,relro" LD=mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-ld NM="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc-nm" CC="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc" GCC="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc" CXX="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-g++" RANLIB="mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-gcc-ranlib" STRIP=mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-strip OBJCOPY=mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-objcopy OBJDUMP=mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-objdump SIZE=mipsel-openwrt-linux-musl-size CFLAGS="-Os -pipe -mno-branch-likely -mips32r2 -mtune=24kc -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -Wno-error=unused-but-set-variable -Wno-error=unused-result -msoft-float -mips16 -minterlink-mips16 -iremap/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0:c-ares-1.13.0 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-protector -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,relro " CXXFLAGS="-Os -pipe -mno-branch-likely -mips32r2 -mtune=24kc -fno-caller-saves -fno-plt -fhonour-copts -Wno-error=unused-but-set-variable -Wno-error=unused-result -msoft-float -mips16 -minterlink-mips16 -iremap/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0:c-ares-1.13.0 -Wformat -Werror=format-security -fstack-protector -Wl,-z,now -Wl,-z,relro " CPPFLAGS="-I/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/usr/include -I/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/include -I/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/usr/include -I/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include/fortify -I/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/include -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=1 " LDFLAGS="-L/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/usr/lib -L/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/lib -L/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/usr/lib -L/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/staging_dir/toolchain-mipsel_24kc_gcc-7.3.0_musl/lib -znow -zrelro "   ./configure --target=mipsel-openwrt-linux --host=mipsel-openwrt-linux --build=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu --program-prefix="" --program-suffix="" --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/usr --bindir=/usr/bin --sbindir=/usr/sbin --libexecdir=/usr/lib --sysconfdir=/etc --datadir=/usr/share --localstatedir=/var --mandir=/usr/man --infodir=/usr/info --disable-nls  ; fi; )
configure: error: 'cat' utility not found in 'PATH'. Can not continue.
make[2]: *** [Makefile:58: /mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/build_dir/target-mipsel_24kc_musl/c-ares-1.13.0/.configured_68b329da9893e34099c7d8ad5cb9c940] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/mnt/e/Win10/Projects/WSL/gl-sdk/sdk/1806/ramips/feeds/gli_pub/c-ares'
Command exited with non-zero status 2

It says “cat utility not found in PATH”, but I do have /usr/bin/cat in the path. I am using a newly cloned sdk from GitHub. My Ubuntu version is as follows:

$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal

The SDK GitHub page mentions Ubuntu 18.04, but is Ubuntu 20.04 also supported?

Johnex · 2020-10-31T17:35:07.391Z

If you look at the WSL instructions again you will see that it’s not possible to compile anything on a windows disk. I see you are using /mnt/e/. You need to move all your files to the /home/your_user/ directory and try again.

huanchunye · 2020-11-01T03:39:23.447Z

Yes I missed the about Windows drives. Your solution works. Thanks a lot!

jgilmore · 2022-06-30T15:11:28.720Z

PROBLEM:
I was having the same problem…
'cat' utility not found in 'PATH'
…when trying to build Curl on WSL2.

CAUSE:
For me it was caused by my value of TMPDIR environment variable. In order to solve some other unrelated issue (in fact related to to BeyondCompare and git mergetool), I had set TMPDIR to point to a folder somewhere on my C Drive - specifically /mnt/c/Users/<username>/AppData/Local/Temp.
An undesired side effect of this is that calling cat with a temporary file fails (i.e. it is not that cat cannot be found, it is that cat cannot find the temporary file).

In the case of Curl: Curl’s “configure” contains the following code…

xc_space=' '
xc_tab='	' 

#
# Verify that 'cat' utility is found within 'PATH', otherwise abort.
#

xc_tst_str='unknown'
xc_tst_str=`cat <<_EOT 2>/dev/null \
  | wc -l 2>/dev/null | tr -d "$xc_space$xc_tab" 2>/dev/null
unknown
unknown
unknown
_EOT`
case "x$xc_tst_str" in # ((
  x3)
    :
    ;;
  *)
    echo "$xc_msg_err 'cat' utility not found in 'PATH'. $xc_msg_abrt" >&2
    exit 1
    ;;
esac

In essence, WSL2 fails to run the following…

cat <<SOME_END_MARKER
Some text
Some more text
Last line of text
SOME_END_MARKER

$ cat <<SOME_END_MARKER

Some text
Some more text
Last line of text
SOME_END_MARKER
cat: -: No such file or directory <==== cat cannot find a a file called “-”
$

i.e. The intention was to check for the presence of cat, but instead it failed because the test was using a temporary file. Cat is fine.

SOLUTION
I fixed it by not overriding the default TMPDIR variable in my ~/.bashrc

I hope this helps someone.