Syslinux - Feb 2016 - binutils (objcopy?) >= 2.26 breaks syslinux (bios) build

On February 11, 2016 11:30:02 PM PST, poma <pomidorabelisima at gmail.com>
wrote:
>...
>http://repo.or.cz/syslinux.git/commit/8750016
>
>Booting from DVD/CD...
>
>ISOLINUX 6.04  ETCD
>and then hangs
>
>ttyS0 debug shows single line:
>_malloc(24, 0, 2) @ 0x00104bab >
>
>$ ld --version
>GNU ld version 2.26.20160125
>...
>$ gcc --version
>gcc (GCC) 6.0.0 20160205 ...
>...
Yes, it is a bug in ld.  I have been working with H.J. and we have just tracked
it down.
-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse brevity and formatting.

On 12.02.2016 08:38, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On February 11, 2016 11:30:02 PM PST, poma <pomidorabelisima at
gmail.com> wrote:
>> ...
>> http://repo.or.cz/syslinux.git/commit/8750016
>>
>> Booting from DVD/CD...
>>
>> ISOLINUX 6.04  ETCD
>> and then hangs
>>
>> ttyS0 debug shows single line:
>> _malloc(24, 0, 2) @ 0x00104bab >>
>>
>> $ ld --version
>> GNU ld version 2.26.20160125
>> ...
>> $ gcc --version
>> gcc (GCC) 6.0.0 20160205 ...
>> ...
> 
> Yes, it is a bug in ld.  I have been working with H.J. and we have just
tracked it down.
> 

It seems that hjl helped, after all.

Syslinux built, or better to write, linked with:
binutils 2.26.51.20160212 git 95c00d1 is salt-n-pepa.

Both, ISOLINUX and EXTLINUX have passed the test on both, SeaBIOS and
Bare-metal.

Thanks hpa.

> > Yes, it is a bug in ld.  I have been working with H.J. and we have
just tracked it down.
> > 
> 
> 
> It seems that hjl helped, after all.
> 
> Syslinux built, or better to write, linked with:
> binutils 2.26.51.20160212 git 95c00d1 is salt-n-pepa.
> 
> Both, ISOLINUX and EXTLINUX have passed the test on both, SeaBIOS and
Bare-metal.
> 
> Thanks hpa.
> 
> 
 
This means that Fedora would need to (or "should") patch its binutils 
2.26 package, at least until a new upstream binutils is released.

Considering that a Mass Rebuild was already performed for F24, then an 
updated, patched binutils would probably generate new, working 
Syslinux-related packages. Otherwise, these packages for/in F24 will be 
probably failing.

I would guess that Slackware _might_ find itself in some similar 
circumstances (especially so close to a new stable release).

Now, Ubuntu and Debian (unstable / testing / experimental / Sid) might 
find similar problems with binutils 2.26 and Syslinux-related packages, 
but both distros already have more-than-enough troubles / confusion / 
misinformation and lack of maintenance regarding their respective 
Syslinux-related packages. This would be just another one.

Some downstream distros might be affected in similar ways.

As for Gentoo and Arch Linux, neither is using version 2.26 of binutils 
yet.

Regards,
Ady.

 
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