How to tell CCS debugger where to start?
I haven't programmed an MSP430 in assembly, but it seems like the program entry point is not written to the address 0xFFFE:


  Program counter (PC) is loaded with the boot code address and boot code execution begins at that
  address. See Section 1.9 for more information regarding the boot code. Upon completion of the boot
  code, the PC is loaded with the address contained at the SYSRSTIV reset location (0FFFEh).


So from your description, you are using --entry_point= global_symbol as an option to set the entry point. I can't really see why that wouldn't work, have you checked the actual linker call if that option is applied?

So another option would be to write to the address 0xFFFE the value of your start address. Or at least check in your resulting hex image what value gets written there.

I just found this:

MEMORY
{
    MEM : origin = 0x0200, length = 0xFDFD
    RESET : origin = 0xFFFE, length = 0x0002
}
SECTIONS
{
    .text : {} &gt; MEM
    .const : {} &gt; MEM
    .data : {} &gt; MEM
    .bss : {} &gt; MEM
    .reset : &gt; RESET
    .cinit : {} &gt; MEM ;cflag option only
    .pinit : {} &gt; MEM ;cflag option only
}


as the default placement. So maybe because you also named you label RESET the linker gets confused in some way? Maybe name your entry point differently like START or ENTRY. But this also gives a hint how to get the actual address where you want it. You just have to define a 16 bit constant to be placed in the .reset section.

It's strange how different the TI assembler is from the IAR one, with which I'm a bit more familiar.