This patch is needed for --gc-sections to work, regardless of which final form that support will have. This patch renames .text.xxx and .data.xxx sections into .xxx.text and .xxx.data, respectively. .bss.page_aligned (the only .bss.xxx -like section we have) is renamed .bss.k.page_aligned. ".page_aligned.bss" wouldn't work - gcc will assign such section attributes which make it unmergeable with .bss. In fact, binutils ld had a bug and instead of complaining was producing broken vmlinux. The bug is fixed in binutils. Amazingly fast reaction from binutils folks to bug reports! Thanks! .bss.k.page_aligned is more-or-less ok, since it cannot collide with gcc-produced sections due to second dot in the name. However, should we want to do this in linker script: .bss : { *(.bss) *(.bss.*) *(.bss.k.page_aligned)) it wouldn't work. But currently we don't need that. If patch doesn't apply to a newer kernel, you can regenerate it by running linux-2.6.23-rc4.0.fixname.sh in a kernel free and rediffing it against unmodified one. Please apply. Signed-off-by: Denys Vlasenko -- vda