Hi Andreas,
On Wed, 8 May 2013 11:25:17 +0200, Andreas Bießmann andreas.devel@googlemail.com wrote:
Commit 1865286466a5d0c7f2e3c37632da56556c838e9e (Introduce generic link section.h symbol files) changed the __bss_end symbol type from char[] to ulong. This led to wrong relocation parameters which ended up in a not working u-boot. Unfortunately this is not clear to see cause due to RAM aliasing we may get a 'half-working' u-boot then.
Fix this by dereferencing the __bss_end symbol where needed.
(cc:ing Simon and Tom)
The dereferencing is correct, so this patch seems good per se (it could actually have applied when __bss_end was still a char[]).
But the definition of __bss_end to being an ulong, as introduced by 18652864, is plain wrong. Just because it is a linker defined symbol does not mean the object it represents is a 32-bit quantity -- it is not. It still is a non-object, a pure address.
Ditto for __data_end, __rel_dyn_start, __rel_dyn_end and pretty much any symbol in sections.h which is not an offset.
Sorry for not spotting this before it was merged in; but now this must be fixed. I'm ok with the wrongly-ulong symbols being changed back to char[], though I would prefer their type to be char[0] if possible, as this is (admittedly marginally) more likely to help the compiler catch accidental dereferencings.
Amicalement,