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Compile GO language on Raspberry PI

There are many ways to install GO language, eg. you can compile from source or use the pre-compiled binaries. Here I want to show you how you can compile GO from source.

1. PreRequirements:

2. Install from source using git

In order to install the latest go you have to install 1.4.x version first. I followed this useful link.

  • create a dedicated user: gcp
    root@raspberrypi:~# useradd gcp
  • I set the home dir to /opt/google-cloud-print 
    cat /etc/passwd|grep gcp
gcp:x:1002:1002::/opt/google-cloud-print:/bin/bash
  • Clone the repository from GIT:
    git clone https://github.com/golang/go
  • Rename and copy “go†directory for different versions:
    mv go go1.4.3
cp -r go1.4.3 go1.5.2
cp -r go1.4.3 go1.6.3

  • Checkout the versions

    cd go1.4.3/
git checkout go1.4.3
cd ..

cd go1.5.2/
git checkout go1.5.2
cd ..

cd go1.6.3/
git checkout go1.6.3
    As you can see I will compile 3 different versions: 1.4.3, 1.5.2 and the latest one: 1.6.3.

  • First of all we will compile 1.4.3: 

    cd /opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.4.3/src
./all.bash

  • When the compilation is successfully finished, you have to set some system environments: 
    export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP=/opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.4.3
export GOROOT="/opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.4.3"
export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP="$GOROOT"
export GOPATH="$GOROOT/src"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOROOT/bin"
  • Next compile the newer versions. I move forward with 1.6.x: 
    cd /opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.6.3/src
./all.bash

Note

You can run into "not enough" memory issue while package is being tested, but despite the errors go will work properly.

If everything was fine you use different versions of GO, by exporting system environments. I created 3 files to manage different versions:

setGoEnv1.4.3.sh 

#!/bin/bash
export GOROOT="/opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.4.3"
export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP="$GOROOT"
export GOPATH="$GOROOT/src"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOROOT/bin"
setGoEnv1.5.2.sh 
#!/bin/bash
export GOROOT="/opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.5.2"
export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP="$GOROOT"
export GOPATH="$GOROOT/src"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOROOT/bin"

setGoEnv1.6.3.sh 

#!/bin/bash
export GOROOT="/opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.6.3"
export GOROOT_BOOTSTRAP="$GOROOT"
export GOPATH="$GOROOT/src"
export PATH="$PATH:$GOROOT/bin"
* The final step is to check if GO working correctly or not.
Directory Structure: 
gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ pwd
/opt/google-cloud-print/git
gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ ls -al
total 32
drwxr-xr-x  5 gcp gcp 4096 Aug 11 14:35 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 gcp gcp 4096 Aug 11 11:55 ..
drwxr-xr-x 12 gcp gcp 4096 Aug 11 10:49 go1.4.3
drwxr-xr-x 11 gcp gcp 4096 Aug 11 11:17 go1.5.2
drwxr-xr-x 11 gcp gcp 4096 Aug 11 13:57 go1.6.3
-rwxr-xr-x  1 gcp gcp  158 Aug 11 14:34 setGoEnv1.4.3.sh
-rwxr-xr-x  1 gcp gcp  158 Aug 11 14:35 setGoEnv1.5.2.sh
-rwxr-xr-x  1 gcp gcp  158 Aug 11 14:35 setGoEnv1.6.3.sh
Check versions: 
gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ . setGoEnv1.5.2.sh
gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ go version
go version go1.5.2 linux/arm

gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ source setGoEnv1.4.3.sh 
gcp@raspberrypi:~/git$ go version
go version go1.4.3 linux/arm

Note

Please keep in mind that you have to log out from the current shell after using one of the installed go, because the scripts I’m using to set the environment which will concatenate the PATH after each run. For example you set the sysenv to use 1.4.3, the script will add /opt/google-cloud-print/git/go1.4.3/bin/ directory to the PATH env. Or you have to remove the current go path from system PATH before sourceing another environment.

3. Install from downloaded source

You can download source code form the offical web page: https://golang.org/dl/

Note

As you can see there are precompiled binary file for ARM CPUs. But only for ARMv6! Be sure which type of CPU you are using before downloading GO. (Raspberry 2 has ARMv7 CPU!) The install steps are the same as in case of using GIT. Just for fun I will show you how easy to use these official source codes.

  • Download the source code of version 1.4.3. Download 
    gcp@raspberrypi:~/sources$ wget https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.4.3.src.tar.gz
--2016-08-12 16:19:08--  https://storage.googleapis.com/golang/go1.4.3.src.tar.gz
Resolving storage.googleapis.com (storage.googleapis.com)... 216.58.208.48, 2a00:1450:4001:817::2010
Connecting to storage.googleapis.com (storage.googleapis.com)|216.58.208.48|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 10875170 (10M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘go1.4.3.src.tar.gz.1’

go1.4.3.src.tar.gz.1                            100%[=======================================================================================================>]  10.37M  5.26MB/s   in 2.0s   

2016-08-12 16:19:10 (5.26 MB/s) - ‘go1.4.3.src.tar.gz.1’ saved [10875170/10875170]
  • Extract 
    gcp@raspberrypi:~/sources$ tar xf go1.4.3.src.tar.gz 
gcp@raspberrypi:~/sources$ mv go go1.4.3
gcp@raspberrypi:~/sources$
  • Compile 
    gcp@raspberrypi:~/sources/go1.4.3/src$ ./all.bash

After the compilation is done you can compile later versions of go. Don't forget to set system environments before compiling.

Last update: October 29, 2021