A linker script section does not appear on ELF - c

Question

I am using gcc to create an hex file por a pic32 microcontroller and I need to place the configuration words at special memory addresses in the program flash.
I am using this simple linker script:
MEMORY {
boot_flash : ORIGIN = 0x1FC00000, LENGTH = 0xBF0
sfr : ORIGIN = 0x1F800000, LENGTH = 0x100000
program_flash : ORIGIN = 0x1D000000, LENGTH = 0x20000
ram : ORIGIN = 0x00000000, LENGTH = 0x8000
config0 : ORIGIN = 0xBFC02FFC, LENGTH = 0x4
config1 : ORIGIN = 0xBFC02FF8, LENGTH = 0x4
config2 : ORIGIN = 0xBFC02FF4, LENGTH = 0x4
config3 : ORIGIN = 0xBFC02FF0, LENGTH = 0x4
}
SECTIONS {
.text : {
*( .text )
} >boot_flash
.text : {
*(.text)
} >program_flash
.bss : {
*( .bss )
} >ram
.data : {
*( .data )
} >ram
.config0 : {
*( .config0 )
} >config0
.config1 : {
*( .config1 )
} >config1
.config2 : {
*( .config2 )
} >config2
.config3 : {
*( .config3 )
} >config3
}
Then, I compile this simple code:
...
uint32_t config0 __attribute__ ((section(".config0"))) = 0xFFFFFFFF;
uint32_t config1 __attribute__ ((section(".config1"))) = 0xFFFFAF0F;
uint32_t config2 __attribute__ ((section(".config2"))) = 0xFFFFFDFF;
uint32_t config3 __attribute__ ((section(".config3"))) = 0xFFFFFDFF;
...
An finally I check with mips-elf-objdump the resulting ELF file. The code and the data are ok but there are no .config sections in the output ELF.
What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

The code is ok. The problem was on mips-elf-objdump: I was using it with the -d option that does not show me the other ELF sections :-/
Sorry and thanks you your help! :-)

Answer 2

Try adding some code somewhere in the app to reference the config items, like this:
volatile uint32_t dummy;
dummy = config0;
dummy = config1;
dummy = config2;
dummy = config3;
You may find that the linker has been discarding them because they're not referenced - you can tell the linker not to discard unused symbols, but I have had problems with recent versions with sections being discarded regardless.