Re: Possible GCC contamination of Linux

Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
Mon, 20 Sep 1999 11:22:21 -0400

"Richard B. Johnson" wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I spent the weekend trying to track down the reason why Linux (any
> recent version), complied for a 486-SX (no FPU), will not boot.
> It crashes during startup, about the time it looks for a PCI bus.
>
> The C Compiler (version 2.8.1) was compiled on a i686 machine. If I
> recompile on a '486, it will generate a Linux image that boots okay.
>
> So it looks as though the C Compiler, compiled on a 686, generates 686
> machine-code instructions. I don't think this is the correct behavior
> because the gcc command-line contains -m486.

I think the proper command line should be:

-m486 # 486 scheduling
-march=i486 # enable 486-specific instructions
-msoft-float # disable hardware FPU

> So, is there the possibility that something from the gcc library gets
> linked into the kernel? If so, how would I prevent it from happening?

Why is this a problem?

Jeff

-- 
Custom driver development	|    Never worry about theory as long
Open source programming		|    as the machinery does what it's
				|    supposed to do.  -- R. A. Heinlein


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