I want to compile really small native C programs (like wrapper python modules) for maemo so I do not care about the compilation speed.

I don't want to install scratchbox on my linux box (it's too big and ugly and has no proper packaging) so I was thinking I could just compile right on the device.

but alas, gcc package appears stripped from its contents entirely save for the directories and readme files.

so is it not possible to compile for n900 directly on the device?

I heard about easy-debian but not sure if gcc there can be used to make native maemo apps, rather than apps that will only run inside debian chroot. If it can, I'll go for it.

you need to add SDK repository and install gcc
root
echo "deb http://repository.maemo.org fremantle/sdk free non-free">>sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get install gcc

Yes, it is possible. It is not straightforward though, there is a kind of circular dependency. I read a post some time ago about how to do it but I can't search for it now. Search a bit more and if you don't get anything, post here, when I get home I can give it a try.

EDIT: you beat me. I didn't know it was that easy...

Thanks guys and ofcourse the OP for bringing it up
That was way easier than the ossguys GCC installation i saw earlier...

Now a related problem for a linux newbie like me...
How do i compile with gcc?
I tried "gcc filename.cpp" and got "no such file or directory"

You have to be in the same directory as the source for your PWD. Also judging by the extension, the file may not be able to be compiled with gcc. gcc only handles c files primarily. You would need something like g++ to handle c plus plus (cpp) files.

Thanks, the C extension did the trick
But why did it give an error on include stdio.h , No such file or directory?

For gcc/++ 4.2 install build-essentials from SDK repo. For 4.4 search for tannerlab repo and get all gcc related packages from there (uninstalling 4.2 first is advisable so they don't conflict, you need to manually select packages as there is no metapackage like build-essentials on it)

its looking for its dependencies. The dependency requested by that cpp file is standard input/output which is missing from either the PWD or from the defined location.

yeah, build-essentials includes some standard headers/libs, which is why installing it should fix it. gcc alone is just that, compiler.

If you want the SDK on your n900, click the link in my signature.