Re: Linker problem...

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi Gerhard,

>   _edata  =  .;
>   PROVIDE (edata = .);
>
>   __u_boot_cmd_start = .;
>   .u_boot_cmd : { *(.u_boot_cmd) }

> The binutils-2.16.1 (and also the latests snapshots) create the following map output:
>
> fffe7bd8 D env_name_spec
> fffe7bdc A __u_boot_cmd_start
> fffe7bdc A _edata
> [...]
> fffe8384 D desc_and_len_tbl
> fffe83b4 D __u_boot_cmd_autoscr

> __u_boot_cmd_start is placed wrong here, and the resulting bootloader does not
> work correctly.

It looks like you need to fix up the linker script.  From ld.texinfo:

  dot outside sections

  Setting symbols to the value of the location counter outside
  of an output section statement can result in unexpected values
  if the linker needs to place orphan sections.  For example,
  given the following:

  SECTIONS
  {
    start_of_text = . ;
    .text: { *(.text) }
    end_of_text = . ;

    start_of_data = . ;
    .data: { *(.data) }
    end_of_data = . ;
  }

  [...] As well, the linker doesn't associate the above
  symbol names with their sections.  Instead, it assumes
  that all assignments or other statements belong to the
  previous output section, except for the special case of
  an assignment to .  [...] So you could write:

  SECTIONS
  {
    start_of_text = . ;
    .text: { *(.text) }
    end_of_text = . ;

    . = . ;
    start_of_data = . ;
    .data: { *(.data) }
    end_of_data = . ;
  }

Cheers
  Nick