Bug 563364 – sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 built with ld.gold fails

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: UNCONFIRMED ---

[Description quilosaq 2015-10-18 00:19:39 UTC]

When syslinux 6.03 is constructed using the linker ld.gold no error is obtained in this process. Installing syslinux on a disk does not show any error, but booting with the disk fails.

When syslinux 6.03 is constructed with linker ld.bfd everything works fine.

[Comment 1 Matt Whitlock 2015-11-29 02:10:34 UTC]

Created attachment 418096 [details, diff]
syslinux-6.03-ebuild.patch

Confirmed. Extlinux 6.03, built using the Gold linker from sys-devel/binutils-2.25.1-r1 on ~amd64, hangs on boot immediately after the "EXTLINUX" version line. No error message is displayed. After rebuilding sys-boot/syslinux-6.03 using the BFD linker and reinstalling Extlinux on the boot file system, boot proceeds correctly.

This bug should have CRITICAL priority because it could cause a remotely administrated server to fail to boot after an upgrade. (I'm lucky that I have physical access to the machine that I broke by upgrading to this version of Extlinux.)

At the very least, the ebuild should be made to error out if the default linker is Gold. A better solution would be for the ebuild to call tc-ld-disable-gold. The attached ebuild patch makes this change and solves the problem.

[Comment 2 Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn 2016-04-24 20:12:36 UTC]

syslinux-6.03 and 6.04_pre1 now include a ld.gold check (can be overridden with I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING=1).
Leaving this bug open until the underlying issue is fixed.

Please also report this upstream.

[Comment 3 jospezial 2024-01-13 14:20:51 UTC]

(In reply to Chí-Thanh Christopher Nguyễn from comment #2)
> syslinux-6.03 and 6.04_pre1 now include a ld.gold check (can be overridden
> with I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING=1).
> Leaving this bug open until the underlying issue is fixed.

As the syslinux ebuilds in tree now don't have that check any more, was this fixed later somewhere else?

[Comment 4 Matt Whitlock 2024-01-13 19:44:48 UTC]

(In reply to jospezial from comment #3)
> As the syslinux ebuilds in tree now don't have that check any more, was this
> fixed later somewhere else?

The "default-gold" USE flag was dropped from sys-devel/binutils, so the only way Gold could be your default linker would be if you had replaced the "ld" symlink yourself, and that's not a supported configuration on Gentoo.