If I:

1) rename /usr/lib/libstdc++-etcetcetc
2) recompile the compiler with --enable-static (creates a static libstdc++)
3) move /usr/lib/libstdc++-etcetcetc back to its original name

then the exception handling works. Basically the above forces the linker to use the static libstdc++.a instead of the .so, which it would normally prefer. Now I just have to figure out how to do that without all the rigamarole. :-P

Incidentally, we have done the above on Solaris to get around a similar problem (it's actually worse on Solaris: nothing works at all), but on Solaris we just have to remove the .so and it works fine. On Linux everything is compiled against the .so directly, and ln bitches if it isn't there at runtime.

I'm the local "blue sky worker", as they like to call me. So, basically it means that I get paid to research lots of different things whether or not they get used.