Problem with gcj cross from i686-linux to arm-linux.

[George Hartzell <hartzell at alerce dot com>]

I'm using the openembedded build tools (www.openembedded.org) to build
a system for a Zaurus SL-6000L [aka a "tosa"].  I'm using a recent
update of the org.openembedded.dev tree (openembedded uses monotone
for revision control).  I edited the packages/gcc/gcc3-build.inc file
and added ",java" to the JAVA_arm variable so that it would build gcj,
and in my local.conf file I set:

   PREFERRED_VERSION_gcc = "4.1.1"
   PREFERRED_VERSION_gcc-cross = "4.1.1"
   PREFERRED_VERSION_gcc-cross-initial = "4.1.1"

so that it would use gcc4.1.1.  I'm running a 2.6 kernel on the
SL-6000L, which is still considered a work in progress.

I can compile and link a simple Hello world program as follows:

  gcc -c Hello.java
  gcc --main=Hello -o Hello Hello.o

Then move the resulting executable and libgcj.so.7 over to the Zaurus
and set LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. so that it can find libgcj.

It blows up the first several times that I try to run it but
eventually runs successfully.

This time around (after rebooting) it said:

  Aborted

then the second time:

  Illegal Instruction

then the third run:

   Exception during runtime initialization
   java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
      <<No stacktrace available>>
   Caused by java.lang.NullPointerException
      <<No stacktrace available>>

and finally 

   Hello there.

Once it's run successfully then it seems to continue to run
correctly.  I've also seen it crash with a "Segmentation fault".

I've seen posts describing two arm related problems in the boehm-gc
library, one that changes how it finds the bottom of the stack from
"HEURISTIC1" to "LINUX_STACKBOTTOM" and one that makes a small change
to the test-and-set function.  Both changes seem to be in the gcc
4.1.1 tree that I'm using.

The system is using "glibc-2.3.5+cvs20050627-r7" and
"binutils-cross-2.16-r7".

I originally tried using gcc-3.4.4 and had the same problems (even
after confirming/adding the two fixed described above).

Does the behaviour I'm describing above sound familiar to anyone?

What extra information can I provide to help figure out what's going
wrong?

Thanks,

g.