Re: [U-Boot-Users] Is there a redundant check in function "load_elf_image" in common/cmd_elf.c?

On Thu, 6 Dec 2007 14:36:57 -0800 "Ali Rouhi" rouhi.ali@gmail.com wrote:

    if (!(shdr->sh_flags & SHF_ALLOC)
       || shdr->sh_addr == 0 || shdr->sh_size == 0) {
        continue;
    }

This looks bogus for several reasons. First, there's nothing wrong with placing a loadable section at address 0. Second, why is a _loader_ looking at the section header anyway? Loaders are supposed to look at the program header, while the section header is for linkers and debuggers.

The latter issue isn't that serious since the section header contains all the needed information, but an ELF file without a section header is still a valid ELF file that the loader should know how to deal with.

So I removed the "shdr->sh_addr == 0" check, recompiled u-boot (which for me is not based at 0x0!) and was able to boot my ELF.

I think that change makes sense; care to submit a patch? Although beware that when your application is loaded at address 0, NULL pointers can't really be used as NULL pointers anymore since they may point to valid data.

Haavard