ARM setup: How to load from flash?

[Toralf Lund <toralf at procaptura dot com>]

I'm also wondering how other people handle applications that will be 
stored on a flash, i.e. how they are linked, how data is moved to RAM 
etc. That's still for a standalone (no OS) arm-coff application with no 
and debug monitor support. Some questions:

  1. Should I use a separate "loader" program, or have the app do the
     load itself?
  2. Do I need to move the entire program, or just the data section?
  3. How can I override the default "start" behaviour (if that's what I
     want)? I tried specifying an alternative entry-point via the
     linker script, but the start code from crt0.S would still end up
     first in the output file (at least, it has the lowest address in
     disassembly output.)
  4. What does "entry point" in the context of linker scripts/linker
     options mean anyway? Does the COFF format know of such a concept,
     or will it just execute the first instruction found in the file?

And, yes, I'm asking before I've tested anything; I just found out that 
the prototype board is slightly broken and won't talk to the JTAG port, 
so I'm trying to resolve some remaining issues while I wait for a 
replacement...

- Toralf


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