[PATCH] arm: Remove rel.dyn from SPL linker scripts

[ChiaWei Wang]

> From: Tom Rini <trini at konsulko.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 5:32 AM
> 
> As of v2026.01, no platforms contain any rel.dyn sections in their xPL phase
> images. Their inclusion in linker scripts initially was an oversight as part of
> taking the full U-Boot linker scripts and modifying them down. Then in commit
> 8b0ebe054bb3 ("arm: Update linker scripts to ensure appended device tree is
> aligned") these sections were used to force correct alignment for the device
> tree. This however, lead to a different problem.
> 
> That problem is that when we do not have a separate BSS section in SPL we
> instead would overlay the BSS with the rel.dyn section, in the common linker
> script case. This in turn lead to creating an incorrectly sized BSS "pad" file
> sometimes (depending on arbitrary changes within the rest of the binary itself).
> This in turn lead to the dtb being in the wrong location in the binary and not
> found at run time.
> 
> This commit fixes a few things:
> - Remove the rel.dyn section from all ARM SPL linker scripts.
> - In turn, this moves the dtb alignment statement in to another section.
> - For ast2600 which uses CONFIG_POSITION_INDEPENDENT we need to keep
> the
>   symbols however.
> 
> Tested-by: Fabio Estevam <festevam at gmail.com>
> Reported-by: Fabio Estevam <festevam at gmail.com>
> Co-developed-by: Ilias Apalodimas <ilias.apalodimas at linaro.org>
> Signed-off-by: Tom Rini <trini at konsulko.com>
> ---
> I sent this off-list to Fabio first to confirm it finally fixed things.
> 
> Cc: "Chia-Wei, Wang" <chiawei_wang at aspeedtech.com>
> Cc: Adam Ford <aford173 at gmail.com>
> ---
>  arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/mxs/u-boot-spl.lds      |  8 --------
>  arch/arm/cpu/u-boot-spl.lds                    | 13 ++-----------
>  arch/arm/mach-aspeed/ast2600/u-boot-spl.lds    | 16 +++++++---------
>  board/davinci/da8xxevm/u-boot-spl-da850evm.lds |  9 ++-------
>  4 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/mxs/u-boot-spl.lds
> b/arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/mxs/u-boot-spl.lds
> index b4adae272eba..ac166d1d8526 100644
> --- a/arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/mxs/u-boot-spl.lds
> +++ b/arch/arm/cpu/arm926ejs/mxs/u-boot-spl.lds
> @@ -33,14 +33,6 @@ SECTIONS
>  		*(.data*)
>  	}
> 
> -	. = ALIGN(4);
> -
> -	.rel.dyn : {
> -		__rel_dyn_start = .;
> -		*(.rel*)
> -		__rel_dyn_end = .;
> -	}
> -
>  	.bss : {
>  		. = ALIGN(4);
>  		__bss_start = .;
> diff --git a/arch/arm/cpu/u-boot-spl.lds b/arch/arm/cpu/u-boot-spl.lds index
> d780a5060774..c578c3ebf821 100644
> --- a/arch/arm/cpu/u-boot-spl.lds
> +++ b/arch/arm/cpu/u-boot-spl.lds
> @@ -41,23 +41,14 @@ SECTIONS
>  		__binman_sym_start = .;
>  		KEEP(*(SORT(.binman_sym*)));
>  		__binman_sym_end = .;
> -	}
> -
> -	. = ALIGN(4);
> -
> -	__image_copy_end = .;
> -
> -	.rel.dyn : {
> -		__rel_dyn_start = .;
> -		*(.rel*)
> -		__rel_dyn_end = .;
>  		. = ALIGN(8);
>  	}
> 
> +	__image_copy_end = .;
>  	_image_binary_end = .;
>  	_end = .;
> 
> -	.bss __rel_dyn_start (OVERLAY) : {
> +	.bss : {
>  		__bss_start = .;
>  		*(.bss*)
>  		 . = ALIGN(8);
> diff --git a/arch/arm/mach-aspeed/ast2600/u-boot-spl.lds
> b/arch/arm/mach-aspeed/ast2600/u-boot-spl.lds
> index c9664a6ce566..303ace2f61ca 100644
> --- a/arch/arm/mach-aspeed/ast2600/u-boot-spl.lds
> +++ b/arch/arm/mach-aspeed/ast2600/u-boot-spl.lds
> @@ -49,19 +49,17 @@ SECTIONS
>  		__binman_sym_start = .;
>  		KEEP(*(SORT(.binman_sym*)));
>  		__binman_sym_end = .;
> +		. = ALIGN(8);
>  	} > .nor
> 
> -	. = ALIGN(4);
> +	/*
> +	 * These platforms enable CONFIG_POSITION_INDEPENDENT and so need
> +	 * these names. The always however hold the same value.
> +	 */
> +	__rel_dyn_start = .;
> +	__rel_dyn_end = .;
> 
>  	__image_copy_end = .;
> -
> -	.rel.dyn : {
> -		__rel_dyn_start = .;
> -		*(.rel*)
> -		__rel_dyn_end = .;
> -		. = ALIGN(8);
> -	} > .nor
> -
>  	_end = .;
>  	_image_binary_end = .;
> 

Thanks for the fix.
Aspeed enables PIE mainly for the U-Boot execution.
For SPL, the symbols should be fine to be the same.

Reviewed-by: "Chia-Wei, Wang" <chiawei_wang at aspeedtech.com>