with current binutils installed on x86/linux: %cat 1.c #include <stdio.h> int main() { int i = 0; return 0; } %gcc 1.c /mnt/hd/ahimsa/H-x86-src/bin/ld:built in linker script:49: parse error collect2: ld returned 1 exit status where: %ld --version GNU ld version 2.12.90 20020303 and %./ld --version GNU ld version 2.12.90 20020225 works correctly.