GDB question

Hi, I have a general question. I am having a general issue with a very
old GDB version that we are using for proprietary reasons. The
exectuables I am compiling are compiled with a proprietary backend,
but with a new compiler. Our (old-) GDB can't read linked executables
due to DW_FORM_strp offset issues. I am trying to assess what we need
to do. Also, it looks like no symbol table is loaded at all. Could
somebody maybe elaborate around these two questions,

a) is there any way to make an old GDB work with DWARF2 generated by a
new GCC (own backend, but forced to DWARF2). My understanding was that
as long as we force DWARF2, this should work. It looks like that there
are e.g. issues with indirect string offsets as described above, is
this something one can solve or are there old DWARF2 and new DWARF2
versions that are completely incompatible?
b) does GDB abort reading the symbol table completely when
encountering an error? I am wondering why there is no symbol table
loaded at all (No symbol table is loaded.  Use the "file" command.)


Regards,
Thanks,

And sorry if the questions are asked to generally.

Hendrik Greving