uClinux/FDPIC loader on LM32/Milkymist

[Sébastien Bourdeauducq]

Hi,

Does anyone have experience with uClinux/FDPIC loaders?

The loader we use in Milkymist [1] (with the LM32 open source softcore 
processor) is merely crap, requiring the use of -Wl,-q to generate a special 
relocation section and then special options to strip in order to leave that 
relocation section in the final binary. The kernel loader then reads this 
section and relocates the binary itself (instead of having it done by the libc 
as it's supposed to be with normal FDPIC targets).

This makes compiling software difficult, it's slow, and it's kludgy. Such a 
hack will probably never be accepted in the vanilla Linux kernel.

It would be nice if someone with experience with uClibc and FDPIC loaders on 
nommu targets could give us some help about this. It's probably easy and quick 
to make if you know in detail how FDPIC loaders work, but I don't.

Thanks,
Sébastien

[1] http://en.qi-hardware.com/wiki/Milkymist_One