Ubuntu 14.04 Binutils Breaks Xen EFI Boot

Ubuntu 14.04 Binutils Breaks Xen EFI Boot

[John McDermott]

Xen Developers,

When building Xen for EFI boot on Ubuntu 14.04, if I compile binutils from the Ubuntu source package, using the --enable-targets=x86_64-pep flag, as required, then I cannot compile Xen. In fact, after I compile binutils with this flag, I can no longer compile binutils either. I get an error during configure: 

	configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
	See `config.log' for more details.

The log file merely repeats this information, at least on the current Ubuntu 14.04 I am running. When I get this error, I cannot fix it by purging the binutils package. If I reinstall the entire OS, problems go away but I cannot compile Xen for EFI, because my binutils is not configured for the x86_64-pep emulation.

I have been able to compile Xen EFI boot on Ubuntu 14.04, about 2 weeks ago, and boot successfully using EFI. Everything just worked. Now, following the same procedure, some change to something that got upgraded in the last 2 weeks breaks.

Is anyone else currently compiling Xen for EFI boot, on Ubuntu 14.04? Is there another flag that will compile binutils in a way that does not break gcc/ld?

Sincerely,

John

----

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#include "/dev/tty"

J.P. McDermott			building 12
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Re: Ubuntu 14.04 Binutils Breaks Xen EFI Boot

[Ian Campbell]

On Thu, 2014-09-25 at 13:43 -0400, John McDermott wrote:
> Xen Developers,
> 
> When building Xen for EFI boot on Ubuntu 14.04, if I compile binutils
> from the Ubuntu source package, using the --enable-targets=x86_64-pep
> flag, as required, then I cannot compile Xen.

I don't think you need to rebuild binutils on Ubuntu, it already has the
x86_64-pep target enabled (I'm slightly inferring this from the Debian
package since I'm not an Ubuntu user, but the package maintainer is the
same guy and the packaging has if(ubuntu) in it).

I think what you've ended up doing is building a binutils which can
*only* target x86_64-pep and not the regular ABI, so it can't build
normal binaries.

I recommend you uninstall your self compiled binutils and go back to the
Ubuntu packaging, I expect this will repair your system and you'll still
be able to build Xen with EFI.

Ian.