Fedora xen - May 2008 - configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your binutils

I hope this isn''t off topic since the bug I am trying to resolve only 
affects the xen kernel...

I am trying to compile grub on Fedora 8 because I need to apply the patch 
for bug 250299.

First, I downloaded and installed 
http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/8/Fedora/source/SRPMS/grub-0.97-19.src.rpm


Next, I extracted the included grub-0.97.tar.gz to /usr/src/

At this point, if I run configure, I will get the error mentioned in the 
subject, as follows:

[CODE]checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking whether optimization for size works... yes
checking whether gcc has -fno-stack-protector... yes
checking whether -Wundef works... yes
checking whether -falign-loops works... yes
checking for objcopy... objcopy
checking if C symbols get an underscore after compilation... no
checking whether objcopy works for absolute addresses... no
configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your 
binutils[/CODE]

However, I am running binutils 2.17.50.0.18 which is the latest in the 
fedora repo, so I cannot upgrade, and I do not know how to downgrade.

I saw another issue where this same error was happening, and someone 
suggested downloading ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.97.tar.gz and 
using it.

I tried this and determined that that is the exact file included in the srpm 
I had downloaded, and the error still surfaces when I try it.

Additionally, if I apply the included grub-fedora-8.patch, the configure 
file disappears.  I can get it from the tar again, but I will still get the 
same error, so while I need to know how I am supposed to compile after 
applying that patch (which I apply before the patch for the aforementioned 
bug), but that point is moot until I can determine how to fix this binutils 
issue.

FYI, I was able to get grub built with only the memory patch by installing
compat-gcc-34 (and compat-gcc-34-c++ for good measure), and feeding CC=gcc34
as a variable to configure.  So apparently that was just a compatibility
issue where F7 must use an older version of gcc.  I still have no clue how
to build after applying grub-fedora-8.patch, though.

____________________________________
From: fedora-xen-bounces@redhat.com [mailto:fedora-xen-bounces@redhat.com]
On Behalf Of Dustin Henning
Sent: Friday, May 23, 2008 17:20
To: fedora-xen@redhat.com
Subject: [Fedora-xen] configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute
objcopy; upgrade your binutils

I hope this isn''t off topic since the bug I am trying to resolve only
affects the xen kernel...
I am trying to compile grub on Fedora 8 because I need to apply the patch
for bug 250299.

First, I downloaded and installed
http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/releases/8/Fedora/source/SRPMS/grub-0.97-19
.src.rpm 

Next, I extracted the included grub-0.97.tar.gz to /usr/src/

At this point, if I run configure, I will get the error mentioned in the
subject, as follows:

[CODE]checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ANSI C... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking whether optimization for size works... yes
checking whether gcc has -fno-stack-protector... yes
checking whether -Wundef works... yes
checking whether -falign-loops works... yes
checking for objcopy... objcopy
checking if C symbols get an underscore after compilation... no
checking whether objcopy works for absolute addresses... no
configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your
binutils[/CODE]

However, I am running binutils 2.17.50.0.18 which is the latest in the
fedora repo, so I cannot upgrade, and I do not know how to downgrade.

I saw another issue where this same error was happening, and someone
suggested downloading ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.97.tar.gz and
using it.

I tried this and determined that that is the exact file included in the srpm
I had downloaded, and the error still surfaces when I try it.

Additionally, if I apply the included grub-fedora-8.patch, the configure
file disappears.  I can get it from the tar again, but I will still get the
same error, so while I need to know how I am supposed to compile after
applying that patch (which I apply before the patch for the aforementioned
bug), but that point is moot until I can determine how to fix this binutils
issue.