linking error when using sprintf() - linker

Question

on my cortex-m3, i am trying to output a float variable to my UART port.. so i need to convert the float DATA into a char outputstr[].
For this purpose, i used sprintf from the libc.a
if i comment out the sprintf(), i can compile and link.
if i use sprintf(outputstr, "t"), i can compile and link.
if i use sprintf(outputstr, "The value is %f", DATA), i will get linking errors like: no memory region specified for loadable section `.rodata', '.bss', '.text', '.data'
But i had already added *(.rodata), *(.bss) etc... in my linker script as below:
...
OUTPUT_FORMAT("elf32-littlearm", "elf32-bigarm", "elf32-littlearm")
OUTPUT_ARCH(arm)
ENTRY(reset_handler)
MEMORY {
ROM : ORIGIN = 0x08000000, LENGTH = 128K
RAM : ORIGIN = 0x20000000, LENGTH = 16K
}
SECTIONS {
.ROMdata 0x8000000: AT(0x8000000){
startup.o(.romvect)
. = ALIGN(0x4);
system_stm32l1xx.o(.rodata*)
*(.rodata*)
_ROMdataend_ = ALIGN(0x4);
}
.ROMstartup (_ROMdataend_): AT(_ROMdataend_){
startup.o(.startup)
lowlevelinit.o(.lowlevelinit .tempexchandler)
system_stm32l1xx.o(.text*)
. = ALIGN(0x4);
}
.RAMbss 0x20000000 (NOLOAD):{
lowlevelinit.o(.ramvectortable)
. = ALIGN(0x4);
_RAMbssstart_ = .;
startup.o(.stack .heap)
. = ALIGN(0x4);
sensor_MTH01.o(.bss*)
. = ALIGN(0x4);
comm_BT-HC-05.o(.bss)
tim6.o(.bss)
main.o(.bss)
system_stm32l1xx.o(.bss*)
*(.bss*)
_RAMbssend_ = ALIGN(0x4);
}
.RAMcode (_RAMbssend_): AT(LOADADDR(.ROMstartup)+SIZEOF(.ROMstartup)){
_RAMcodeVMAstart_ = .;
_RAMcodeLMAstart_ = LOADADDR(.RAMcode);
main.o(.ramcode .text)
tim6.o(.tim6isr)
tim6.o(.text)
sensor_MTH01.o(.text)
comm_BT-HC-05.o(.text)
exti0_isr.o(.exti0isr)
*(.text*)
KEEP (*(.eh_*))
_RAMcodeVMAend_ = ALIGN(0x4);
}
.RAMdata (_RAMcodeVMAend_): AT(LOADADDR(.RAMcode)+SIZEOF(.RAMcode)){
_RAMcodeLMAend_ = (LOADADDR(.RAMcode)+SIZEOF(.RAMcode));
_RAMdataVMAstart_ = .;
_RAMdataLMAstart_ = LOADADDR(.RAMdata);
sensor_MTH01.o(.data)
system_stm32l1xx.o(.data*)
*(.data*)
_RAMdataVMAend_ = ALIGN(0x4);
_RAMdataLMAend_ = LOADADDR(.RAMdata) + SIZEOF(.RAMdata);
}
}
...
Also, i did include the lib paths and include paths in my makefile as below:
On a side note, i am also using strlen() and other float division operations from the libc.a and libgcc.a and these functions complile, link and work ok.
...
CC = arm-none-eabi-gcc
AS = arm-none-eabi-as
LD = arm-none-eabi-ld
OBJCPY = arm-none-eabi-objcopy
CCFLAGS = -c -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb -O0 -g -Wall
ASMFLAGS = -mcpu=cortex-m3 -mthumb --gdwarf-2
LDFLAGS = -T CortexM3.ld -M=memmap.map
OBJCPYFLAGS = -O ihex
FLOATFLAGS = -mfloat-abi=soft -mfpu=vfp
LIBDIR = -L C:\\yagarto-20121222\\lib\\gcc\\arm-none-eabi\\4.7.2\\thumb\\v7m -L C:\\yagarto-20121222\\arm-none-eabi\\lib\\thumb\\v7m
INCDIR = -I C:\\yagarto-20121222\\lib\\gcc\\arm-none-eabi\\4.7.2\\include -I C:\\yagarto-20121222\\arm-none-eabi\\include
all: m3.elf
m3.elf: startup.o lowlevelinit.o system_stm32l1xx.o main.o tim6.o exti0_isr.o sensor_MTH01.o comm_BT-HC-05.o
$(LD) $(LDFLAGS) $(LIBDIR) $^ -lc -lgcc -o $#
$(OBJCPY) $(OBJCPYFLAGS) m3.elf m3.hex
startup.o: startup.s
lowlevelinit.o: lowlevelinit.c system_stm32l1xx.h stm32l1xx.h core_cm3.h
system_stm32l1xx.o: system_stm32l1xx.c stm32l1xx.h core_cm3.h system_stm32l1xx.h
main.o: main.c stm32l1xx.h
tim6.o: tim6.c
exti0_isr.o: exti0_isr.c
sensor_MTH01.o: sensor_MTH01.c
comm_BT-HC-05.o: comm_BT-HC-05.c
clean:
-rm -f startup.o lowlevelinit.o system_stm32l1xx.o main.o tim6.o tim6_isr.o exti0_isr.o sensor_MTH01.o comm_BT-HC-05.o memmap.map m3.elf m3.hex
%.o: %.s
$(AS) $(ASMFLAGS) $< -o $#
%.o: %.c
$(CC) $(CCFLAGS) $(INCDIR) $(FLOATFLAGS) $< -o $#
.PHONY: all clean
...
can anyone advise?
also, if i come across linking error message like: no memory region specified for loadable section `.rodata'... how can i know which object's (.o) .rodata section is being left out of my linker script?
update:
i realized that if the sprintf() function is called in main(), the program can compile and link successfully.. but if i call the sprintf() function in other functions, i will get above linking errors (no memory region specified for loadable section .bss), even if i used *(.bss) as the input sections for my output sections.

Answer 1

To solve the linking errors ('no memory region specified for loadable section .bss etc', i had to add *(COMMON) in the BSS output section.