Re: objdump command to disassemble raw MIPS binary

["A.W.C. via binutils" <binutils at sourceware dot org>]

Hi,


It turns out the problem is that files I have are not ELF binaries. The files are contents of memory regions of SPI Flash (in hex form), converted to binary form (.bin) use xxd -r. There is no .text section, only .data section. The 'file' command determines the file type of file.bin as 'data' file type.
Because it does not contain executable code; rather, it contains 'data'. As a result, when this data is treated as code and disassembled, this did not produce meaningful results.
So, question is how to convert the binary data file into a valid ELF executable?


Regards,
Alex
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 8/6/18, Nick Clifton <nickc@redhat.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: objdump command to disassemble raw MIPS binary
 To: "A.W.C." <bluestream@ymail.com>
 Cc: binutils@sourceware.org
 Date: Monday, August 6, 2018, 12:33 PM
 
 Hi Alex,
 
 > What additional switches can be used to
 get disassembled output with more detalization?
 > (for example, more easily to determine
 memory location of a specific local variable)
 
 Determining the location of a
 local variable is actually quite hard as it could
 live in several different locations (on the
 stack, in a register, somewhere else
 in
 memory).
 
 You could use the
 disassembler to display the instructions involved and then
 work 
 out for yourself where the variable
 lives.  Alternatively you could look at the
 dwarf debug information which probably includes
 details on the variable (although
 it can be
 rather hard to find).  Or you could use gdb, which should
 be able to
 show you the contents, and
 probably the location, of any variable you choose.
 
 You might also find the
 disassembler's  --source option helpful.  This
 displays
 the source code intermixed with the
 disassembly, which can help you narrow down
 where a variable is actually used.
 
 Cheers
   Nick