git-unnoticed merge conflicts breaking arm cross-building

I checked out git master and tried to cross compile an arm kernel for my sheevaplug

It fails with linker errors:

/usr/bin/ld.bfd.real: scripts/mod/file2alias.o: Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 40)
/usr/bin/ld.bfd.real: scripts/mod/file2alias.o: Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 40)
/usr/bin/ld.bfd.real: scripts/mod/file2alias.o: Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 40)
/usr/bin/ld.bfd.real: scripts/mod/file2alias.o: Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 40)
scripts/mod/file2alias.o: could not read symbols: File in wrong format
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

where it appears that it isn't calling the cross-toolchain (/usr/bin/arm-linux-gnueabi-ld)

I have
CONFIG_CROSS_COMPILE="arm-linux-gnueabi-"

I did a full git bisect and

good:
commit f08b9c2f8af0d61faa1170aeae4fbca1eff6a504
Merge: d79ee93 0ab711a
Author: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
Date: Tue May 22 18:38:11 2012 -0700

Merge branch 'x86-apic-for-linus' of
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

good:
commit 99ce58ddc4eadec8c35d9a1d64ff57703fdcfacc
Merge: 56ccd18 44d27f7 4e52b53 ed13794
Author: Jiri Kosina <[email protected]>
Date: Tue May 22 11:33:42 2012 +0200

Merge branches 'upstream-fixes', 'wacom' and 'waltop' into for-linus

first bad:
commit 3c2c4b73aa79e4a1b601710b59e092441175f4bb
Merge: f08b9c2 99ce58d
Author: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
Date: Tue May 22 19:21:48 2012 -0700

Merge branch 'for-linus' of
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/hid

-Shawn Landden