The segfault happens in 2.23.2. 

Starting program: ld -m elf64btsmip -X -N -r --fatal-warnings -o ../lib/x.a /tmp/a.o /tmp/b.o

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
elf_link_input_bfd (input_bfd=0xc109d0, flinfo=0x7fffffffd430) at elflink.c:9771
9771                          irela->r_info = 0;
(gdb) bt
#0  elf_link_input_bfd (input_bfd=0xc109d0, flinfo=0x7fffffffd430) at elflink.c:9771
#1  bfd_elf_final_link (abfd=0x7767f0, info=0x7603e0 <link_info>) at elflink.c:10852
#2  0x0000000000458834 in _bfd_mips_elf_final_link (abfd=<optimized out>, info=0x7603e0 <link_info>) at elfxx-mips.c:13571
#3  0x000000000041766b in ldwrite () at ldwrite.c:582
#4  0x000000000041656a in main (argc=11, argv=0x7fffffffdd88) at ./ldmain.c:420

(gdb) p /x irela
$27 = 0x7ffff1790ff8
(gdb) p /x *irela
$8 = {
  r_offset = 0xffffffffffffffff, 
  r_info = 0xde020109, 
  r_addend = 0x2d900000038
}


elflink.c in 2.23.2

 9763           if (irela->r_offset >= (bfd_vma) -2)
 9764             {
 9765               /* This is a reloc for a deleted entry or somesuch.
 9766              Turn it into an R_*_NONE reloc, at the same
 9767              offset as the last reloc.  elf_eh_frame.c and
 9768              bfd_elf_discard_info rely on reloc offsets
 9769              being ordered.  */
 9770               irela->r_offset = last_offset;
 9771               irela->r_info = 0;
 9772               irela->r_addend = 0;
 9773               continue;
 9774             }


The key difference between crashing/asserting and working just fine is that I have enabled debugging. Dwarf-4 debug symbols where each type is placed into its own .debug_types section. I'm using GCC 4.6.

In binutils 2.22 there is an assert at 
ld: BFD (GNU Binutils) 2.22 assertion fail elf64-mips.c:2521
ld: BFD (GNU Binutils) 2.22 assertion fail elf64-mips.c:2522
ld: BFD (GNU Binutils) 2.22 assertion fail elf64-mips.c:2527
ld: BFD (GNU Binutils) 2.22 assertion fail elf64-mips.c:2528

2512 /* Swap out a MIPS 64-bit Rela reloc.  */
2513 
2514 static void
2515 mips_elf64_be_swap_reloca_out (bfd *abfd, const Elf_Internal_Rela *src,
2516                    bfd_byte *dst)
2517 {
2518   Elf64_Mips_Internal_Rela mirela;
2519 
2520   mirela.r_offset = src[0].r_offset;
2521   BFD_ASSERT(src[0].r_offset == src[1].r_offset);
2522   BFD_ASSERT(src[0].r_offset == src[2].r_offset);
2523 
2524   mirela.r_type = ELF64_MIPS_R_TYPE (src[0].r_info);
2525   mirela.r_sym = ELF64_R_SYM (src[0].r_info);
2526   mirela.r_addend = src[0].r_addend;
2527   BFD_ASSERT(src[1].r_addend == 0);
2528   BFD_ASSERT(src[2].r_addend == 0);
2529 
2530   mirela.r_type2 = ELF64_MIPS_R_TYPE (src[1].r_info);
2531   mirela.r_ssym = ELF64_MIPS_R_SSYM (src[1].r_info);
2532   mirela.r_type3 = ELF64_MIPS_R_TYPE (src[2].r_info);
2533 
2534   mips_elf64_swap_reloca_out (abfd, &mirela,
2535                   (Elf64_Mips_External_Rela *) dst);
2536 }

Unfortunately this bug is preventing me to roll out a new debugging infrastructure. Thank you for your help.