Kernel link failure info ------------------------ You may experience problems linking older (and some newer) kernels with this version of binutils. This is not because of a bug in the linker, but rather a bug in the kernel source. This is being worked out and fixed by the upstream kernel group in newer kernels, but not all of the problems may have been fixed at this time. Older kernel versions will almost always exhibit the problem, however, and no attempts are being made to fix those that we know of. There are a few work-arounds, but the most reliable is to edit the linker script for your architecture (e.g. arch/i386/vmlinux.lds) and remove the '*(.text.exit)' entry from the 'DISCARD' line. It will bloat the kernel somewhat, but it should link properly. The ld -oformat option has been replaced ---------------------------------------- The ld command-line option '-oformat' has been completely replaced by '--oformat' in newer binutils. This may cause problems when linking older kernel versions on i386 which still use the '-oformat' syntax in arch/boot/Makefile. If you encounter problems, edit arch/boot/Makefile in your kernel source and change '-oformat' to '--oformat'.