[Celinux-dev] Linux kernel hangs while booting on hardware

[Paul Mundt]

On Fri, Dec 15, 2006 at 04:26:26PM +0530, Ashay Jaiswal wrote:
> I have successfully build SH4-Linux toolchain based on 	
> (binutils-2.17, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.5) for Renesas SH target.	
> 
> I am trying to cross compile Linux-2.6.17 using the above mentioned 	
> Cross-toolchain for Renesas target (sh-7751R2D+).	
> 
> I tried to execute some binaries using 'exec' system call in the kernel
> source but kernel hangs while executing 'exec' call.	
> 
> When tried with GCC-3.4.6 based toolchain (for cross compiling kernel)
> kernel boots properly on hardware.	
> 
That's expected, GCC 4 is not supported in kernels that old, as a few
seconds with google would have made rather apparent. There are changes
required for exception handlers in order for it to work. Take a look at
2.6.20-rc1 for the relevant bits (hint: RELOC_HIDE).

As usual, the answer remains 'try a recent kernel before bothering to
submit a vaguely-worded bug report for an obsolete kernel', this
brilliant act of foresight would save everyone a lot of time. While we're
at it, consulting MAINTAINERS for the proper place to report this sort of
stuff would also be nice, rather than just dumping on the first vaguely
related list that comes to mind.

If you expect people to fix your problems, the least you can do is spend
a few seconds making sure they're actually relevant and properly
reported.