See also: http://www.sunspot.co.uk/Projects/sweexproject.htm

I'm using gentoo here. First we need to install crossdev:

emerge -av crossdev

If you want to use uclibc change your USE in /etc/make.conf:

USE="-nls -iconv -pregen -userlocales"

Now install the cross compile Environment with:

crossdev -C mipsel-gentoo-linux-uclibc
crossdev --target mipsel-gentoo-linux-uclibc

If an error happens execute the following:

source /etc/profile
crossdev mipsel-gentoo-linux-uclibc

Get packages for gentoo:

emerge -n \
  psyco \
  ccache \
  patch \
  make \
  sed \
  dev-lang/python \
  m4 \
  bison \
  cvs \
  openjade \
  quilt \
  sgmltools-lite \
  docbook-xml-dtd \
  docbook-dsssl-stylesheets \
  xmlto \
  docbook-sgml-utils \
  libpcre \
  boost \
  subversion \
  texi2html \
  pysqlite

Edit your .profiles:

export BBPATH=~/stuff/build:~/stuff/openembedded
export PATH=~/stuff/bitbake/bin:$PATH

Now prepare build system:

cd
mkdir -p ~/stuff/build/conf
cd stuff

Download bitbake eg. bitbake-1.8.12.tar.gz. Or get it via svn:

svn co svn://svn.berlios.de/bitbake/branches/bitbake-1.8/ bitbake

Get it:

git clone git://git.openembedded.net/openembedded

To update it use:

cd ~/stuff/openembedded
git pull

cd ~/stuff
cp openembedded/conf/local.conf.sample build/conf/local.conf
vi build/conf/local.conf

svn co http://svn.nslu2-linux.org/svnroot/optware/trunk optware
cd optware
make