libtool won't link with static libraries

[Adam Nielsen]

Hi all,

I'm trying to cross-compile a library under Linux to produce a Win32 .dll.  It 
needs to link in with static Boost libraries (which were also cross compiled 
on the same machine) but libtool seems to refuse to do this:

*** Warning: Trying to link with static lib archive 
/usr/i486-mingw32/lib/libboost_filesystem-mt-s.a.
*** I have the capability to make that library automatically link in when
*** you link to this library.  But I can only do this if you have a
*** shared version of the library, which you do not appear to have
*** because the file extensions .a of this argument makes me believe
*** that it is just a static archive that I should not use here.

This is the libtool command in question - but as it is all handled by autoconf 
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!

/bin/sh ../libtool  --tag=CXX   --mode=link i486-mingw32-g++  -g -O2  -release 
0.1 -version-info 0 -no-undefined -o libblah.la -rpath 
/usr/i486-mingw32/local/lib blah1.lo blah2.lo 
/usr/i486-mingw32/lib/libboost_system-mt-s.a 
/usr/i486-mingw32/lib/libboost_filesystem-mt-s.a 
/usr/i486-mingw32/lib/libboost_system-mt-s.a -L/usr/i486-mingw32/local/lib -lblah3

I get a second error the same as the first for the other .a file.  The two 
libraries are definitely not being linked, because the next step in the 
process results in:

.libs/blah.o: In function `__static_initialization_and_destruction_0':
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../i486-mingw32/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:214: 
undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../i486-mingw32/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:215: 
undefined reference to `boost::system::generic_category()'
/usr/lib/gcc/i486-mingw32/4.5.2/../../../../i486-mingw32/include/boost/system/error_code.hpp:216: 
undefined reference to `boost::system::system_category()'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Can anyone offer any pointers as to what might be going on?  Why won't libtool 
use the static library?

Many thanks,
Adam.