RE: Gcc+binutils+libc cross-compiling: path to libc.so.6 malformed in "ld".

["Kaz Kylheku" <kaz at zeugmasystems dot com>]

Solved!

This problem is caused by a miscconfigured glibc build with an incorrect
--prefix. The absolute paths are picked up from libc.so, which is just a
linker script generated by glibc.  This linker script must contain paths
that are correct for the target system system. Of course, those paths
don't work on the cross-compiling system, which is where the catenation
with --sysroot comes in. And of course install_root must be used in
glibc to avoid actually trying to place files at the fictitious --prefix
location. So install_root must match your --sysroot location, and
--prefix is just / . 

Yesterday, I got a mini cross-compiled Linux system to run on real MIPS
hardware, starting from scratch, with very little hints from anywhere. I
just kept doing the "obvious" steps until I got a shell prompt on the
hardware.

How did I debug the problem? Well, after my silly patch to binutils,
which I can now back out, I got everything to link surely enough. But
with the wrong paths. So when I tried to boot the system, my shiny new
/sbin/init was able to fetch the dynamic linker /lib/ld.so.1, but the
dynamic linker quit, with a message about not being able to find
libc.so.6! What? It's right there!

So then I went into the kernel, and compiled an extra environment
variable into init's env[] array, so that I could set it from the kernel
command line. I was then able to "LD_DEBUG=all" on the kernel command
line! I rebooted the MIPS board and ld.so nicely dumped out to the
serial console that it was trying to use build-system paths to look for
the library rather than the correct target-system paths. I band-aided
that with a symbolic link, and got the system to boot, then worked out
the real solution.