On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 8:33 AM, Jeffrey C. Jacobs <jacobs@itd.nrl.navy.mil> wrote:
Thanks for your reply, Myles!
No problem.
 
Myles Watson wrote:

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 6:55 AM, Jeffrey C. Jacobs <jacobs@itd.nrl.navy.mil <mailto:jacobs@itd.nrl.navy.mil>> wrote:

   --------
   gcc -m32 -nostdlib -nostartfiles -static -o linuxbios -T
   ldscript.ld crt0.o
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.text'
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.text'
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.text'
   /usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'

I haven't seen these warnings.  Are they the cause?
Well, I just tried to build the Tyan S1846 board and got these warnings for CRT0:


/usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'
/usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'
/usr/bin/ld: warning: dot moved backwards before `.id'
No .text warnings, though.
 

So I guess that may be a red herring since...
Could be, but they still look suspicious to me.
 
... the Tyan S1846 DOES pass the objcopy step so it looks to be specific to my target (the arcom/apollo board).  The funny thing is, this was all working before I updated to the latest version (though I could never boot past the jump to boot loader step before).  I should also note in the strace I originally attached that objcopy literally tries to write like 4GB of 0xFF before dying if that helps.
I would say that sounds like a negative number.  So if you're telling it to fill a negative amount of space with 0xff...

Maybe start by comparing ldscripts and offsets between the S1846 and your board?  Try removing the gap-fill parameter to narrow it down?

Good luck,
Myles