the files in /usr/lib/debug are built with objcopy --only-keep-debug, so only
include the debug info. the stripped files get a debug link added (objcopy
--add-gnu-debuglink).

Well, that would explain that :( I had assumed they were just the full, unstripped versions of the libs. Would those be available from anywhere?

Did that work in the past?

What worked in the past was having a loader lib that wasn't stripped (we would later do a 'strip --strip-unneeded --strip-debug' on it, which is fine -- it's just when it's completely stripped of all symbols that valgrind can't function). That's when we were using the 4.4.1 from CodeSourcery (none of the libs are stripped). Switching to linaro means I have to build the toolchain myself, and its build just picks up the libs from the libc6_2.12.1-0ubuntu6_armel.deb package, and those libs are fully stripped.

Can valgrind handle detached debug information?

I doubt it (can't think how that would work... but I'm open to suggestions).

If not, then maybe call dh_strip in the eglibc package with -Xld-2.13.so

I'm not building eglibc -- the linaro build process doesn't include doing that, and I don't have any information on how libc6_2.12.1-0ubuntu6_armel.deb (what the linaro build process uses) was built.

Thanks,
Diane