configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your binutils

[Lars Noodén]

./configure (for grub 0.97 source) gives this error on Karmic Koala Alpha 5 for i386:

checking whether objcopy works for absolute addresses... no
configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your binutils

binutils is the latest available so there seems to be a problem with objcopy

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

$ apt-cache show binutils
Package: binutils
Priority: optional
Section: devel
Installed-Size: 9564
Maintainer: Ubuntu Core developers <email address hidden>
Original-Maintainer: Matthias Klose <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Version: 2.19.51.20090827-1ubuntu1
Provides: elf-binutils
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.8), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4)
Suggests: binutils-doc (>= 2.19.51.20090827-1ubuntu1)
Conflicts: elf-binutils, gas, modutils (<< 2.4.19-1)
Filename: pool/main/b/binutils/binutils_2.19.51.20090827-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
Size: 1653974
MD5sum: f75c9f5c8a9c7bd28d4b0a337916587b
SHA1: 1ae21a988fbdb46231de457176c717bd4b420799
SHA256: 081886734173055018aae21cff2a72544d28b35a8d7a24bdba2b7e9ca9c29d8d
Description: The GNU assembler, linker and binary utilities
 The programs in this package are used to assemble, link and manipulate
 binary and object files. They may be used in conjunction with a compiler
 and various libraries to build programs.
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Build-Essential: yes
Origin: Ubuntu
Task: ubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-netbook, edubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-backend-master, mythbuntu-backend-slave, mythbuntu-desktop, mythbuntu-frontend, ubuntu-netbook-remix

$ uname -a
Linux mini 2.6.31-9-generic #29-Ubuntu SMP Sun Aug 30 17:39:23 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

confirmed with 2.19.91.20090910, grub2 builds fine

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

This wasn't a bug in binutils (grub's configure message was in error), and I fixed this in the grub package in 9.10.

grub (0.97-29ubuntu58) karmic; urgency=low

  * objcopy-absolute.diff (update): Remove .note, .comment, and
    .note.gnu.build-id sections from images (LP: #444703).

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:19:05 +0100

grub (0.97-29ubuntu57) karmic; urgency=low

  * cache_coherency.diff (update): Add Debian bug link.
  * objcopy-absolute.diff: Backport from grub2 (Lubomir Kundrak): take only
    .text section into account, as newer toolchains generate unique build
    ids.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:57:44 +0100

[Ravikiran D Borse (ravidborse)]

To Solve this error just do minute changes in configure file

Below is the Snippet of configure file:

echo $ECHO_N "checking whether ${OBJCOPY} works for absolute addresses...
....
....
[B]for link_addr in 0x2000 0x8000 0x7C00; do [/B]
....
....
[B] if { ac_try='${OBJCOPY-objcopy} --only-section=.text -O binary conftest.exec conftest'[/B]
....
....

The Lines in Bold Format or with [B] symbol, just replace this lines

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 03:35:26PM -0000, Ravikiran D Borse wrote:
> To Solve this error just do minute changes in configure file

Thanks, but I solved this problem long ago - see the bug log.

[AreYouLoco? (areyouloco++)]

same error compiling grub:
checking for objcopy... objcopy
checking if C symbols get an underscore after compilation... no
checking whether objcopy works for absolute addresses... no
configure: error: GRUB requires a working absolute objcopy; upgrade your binutils

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

@areyouloco++: What version of grub is this? We fixed this in all known versions some time ago.

[dhiraj (dhirajbhor21)]

Thanks a ton @ravidborse and all.
I just followed your steps and it worked.
It helped me on Debian 8 (Jessie).