gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Craig Rodrigues]

Hi,

I have a laptop computer, a Winbook N3:

http://www.winbookcorp.com/support/n3/n3_support.html 

I have Windows XP pre-installed on it, and am interested
in installing either FreeBSD or Linux on a separate hard drive,
and using gdb to do remote debugging on another host, for 
kernel/device driver development.

This computer does not have a DB-9 or DB-25 serial port, but
it does have ports for USB, Firewire, parallel, and PS/2 port.

Would I be able to use gdb for remote debugging over any of these
ports?  I don't think I would be able to do remote debugging over
Ethernet, because I am interested in debugging network protocol
stacks.

Thanks.
-- 
Craig Rodrigues        
http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
rodrigc@attbi.com

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

Not to my knowledge.  Linux/PowerPC has a bit of a firewire debugging
stack, but i386 doesn't - and that's xmon, not gdb.

On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 09:42:55AM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a laptop computer, a Winbook N3:
> 
> http://www.winbookcorp.com/support/n3/n3_support.html 
> 
> I have Windows XP pre-installed on it, and am interested
> in installing either FreeBSD or Linux on a separate hard drive,
> and using gdb to do remote debugging on another host, for 
> kernel/device driver development.
> 
> This computer does not have a DB-9 or DB-25 serial port, but
> it does have ports for USB, Firewire, parallel, and PS/2 port.
> 
> Would I be able to use gdb for remote debugging over any of these
> ports?  I don't think I would be able to do remote debugging over
> Ethernet, because I am interested in debugging network protocol
> stacks.
> 
> Thanks.
> -- 
> Craig Rodrigues        
> http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
> rodrigc@attbi.com
> 

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz                           Carnegie Mellon University
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Craig Rodrigues]

On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 11:18:06AM -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> Not to my knowledge.  Linux/PowerPC has a bit of a firewire debugging
> stack, but i386 doesn't - and that's xmon, not gdb.
> 
> On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 09:42:55AM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> > it does have ports for USB, Firewire, parallel, and PS/2 port.
> > 
> > Would I be able to use gdb for remote debugging over any of these
> > ports?  I don't think I would be able to do remote debugging over
> > Ethernet, because I am interested in debugging network protocol
> > stacks.



Thanks for the response.  Here is an alternate question to the 
problem.  Does anyone have any experience using USB to RS-232
Converters, and using the serial interface offered by that
for remote debugging with gdb?  I'm thinking of something like:

http://www.keyspan.com/products/USB/usa49w/

Thanks.
-- 
Craig Rodrigues        
http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
rodrigc@attbi.com

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[William A. Gatliff]

Craig:


I just purchased a USB-serial converter from Purple Computing the
other day.  I suppose now would be a good time to actually plug it in,
no?  :^)

I'll give it a whirl tomorrow, and let you know.


b.g.

On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 12:04:40PM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 11:18:06AM -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> > Not to my knowledge.  Linux/PowerPC has a bit of a firewire debugging
> > stack, but i386 doesn't - and that's xmon, not gdb.
> > 
> > On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 09:42:55AM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> > > it does have ports for USB, Firewire, parallel, and PS/2 port.
> > > 
> > > Would I be able to use gdb for remote debugging over any of these
> > > ports?  I don't think I would be able to do remote debugging over
> > > Ethernet, because I am interested in debugging network protocol
> > > stacks.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the response.  Here is an alternate question to the 
> problem.  Does anyone have any experience using USB to RS-232
> Converters, and using the serial interface offered by that
> for remote debugging with gdb?  I'm thinking of something like:
> 
> http://www.keyspan.com/products/USB/usa49w/
> 
> Thanks.
> -- 
> Craig Rodrigues        
> http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
> rodrigc@attbi.com
> 

-- 
Bill Gatliff
bgat@billgatliff.com

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[William A. Gatliff]

Craig:


Well, I don't know about FreeBSD, but on my RH73 box, my USB-serial
adapter didn't work.  I'm not sure the problem is with gdb, however,
as I didn't get minicom reliably to work either.  :^(

Here's a snap from my kernel log:

Jul  1 11:55:36 mars kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus2/1/3, assigned device number 4
Jul  1 11:55:36 mars kernel: usb.c: USB device 4 (vend/prod 0x711/0x230) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup mct_u232 for USB product 711/230/102
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usb.c: registered new driver serial
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for Generic
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: USB Serial Driver core v1.4
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for Magic Control Technology USB-RS232
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for MCT/Sitecom USB-RS232
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: MCT/Sitecom USB-RS232 converter detected
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: MCT/Sitecom USB-RS232 converter now attached to ttyUSB0 (or usb/tts/0 for devfs)
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: usbserial.c: USB Serial support registered for MCT/D-Link DU-H3SP USB BAY
Jul  1 11:55:39 mars kernel: mct_u232.c: v1.1:Magic Control Technology USB-RS232 converter driver

But if I connect it on a null cable to ttyS0, I can't reliably send
data bidirectionally.  I've seen this problem before with the
usbserial driver, I gave up before figuring out what the problem
was...

Now I'm disappointed too.  Any ideas?


b.g.


On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 09:42:55AM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a laptop computer, a Winbook N3:
> 
> http://www.winbookcorp.com/support/n3/n3_support.html 
> 
> I have Windows XP pre-installed on it, and am interested
> in installing either FreeBSD or Linux on a separate hard drive,
> and using gdb to do remote debugging on another host, for 
> kernel/device driver development.
> 
> This computer does not have a DB-9 or DB-25 serial port, but
> it does have ports for USB, Firewire, parallel, and PS/2 port.
> 
> Would I be able to use gdb for remote debugging over any of these
> ports?  I don't think I would be able to do remote debugging over
> Ethernet, because I am interested in debugging network protocol
> stacks.
> 
> Thanks.
> -- 
> Craig Rodrigues        
> http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
> rodrigc@attbi.com
> 

-- 
Bill Gatliff
bgat@billgatliff.com

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 12:13:31PM -0500, William A. Gatliff wrote:
> Craig:
> 
> 
> Well, I don't know about FreeBSD, but on my RH73 box, my USB-serial
> adapter didn't work.  I'm not sure the problem is with gdb, however,
> as I didn't get minicom reliably to work either.  :^(

It sounded like Craig wanted to use a kernel debugger; you can't do
that over a USB-serial device.  On some platforms it is possible to
write a minimal Ethernet UDP driver for the task - we did so on ARM at
one point - but I don't know that i386 will let you get away with it.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz                           Carnegie Mellon University
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Craig Rodrigues]

On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 06:40:35PM -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 12:13:31PM -0500, William A. Gatliff wrote:
> > Craig:
> > 
> > 
> > Well, I don't know about FreeBSD, but on my RH73 box, my USB-serial
> > adapter didn't work.  I'm not sure the problem is with gdb, however,
> > as I didn't get minicom reliably to work either.  :^(
> 
> It sounded like Craig wanted to use a kernel debugger; you can't do
> that over a USB-serial device.

What's the reason for this?  I'm not a serial interface expert,
so don't really understand all the issues.

FreeBSD-CURRENT has a driver called uplcom, which was ported from
NetBSD:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/share/man/man4/uplcom.4

It apparently can support USB serial adapters based on the
Prolific PL-2303 chipset, such as:

Aten UC-232A ( http://www.aten.com.tw/USB/USB_1/UC_232A.html )
ELECOM UC-SGT ( http://www2.elecom.co.jp/products/UC-SGT.html )
IOGEAR UC-232A ( http://www.iogear.com/products/product.php?Item=GUC232A )

Supposedly these cables do the RS-232 -> USB conversion, and as long
as you have the correct device driver, user-level applications
which use serial com ports should be able to use this.

Could this potentially work with gdb if I have:

- Legacy PC with serial port, running kernel, sending debug
  messages to serial port

- New laptop with USB only, and no serial port, receiving
  gdb debug messages over the serial adapter
 

-- 
Craig Rodrigues        
http://www.gis.net/~craigr    
rodrigc@attbi.com

Re: gdb remote debugging, other than serial port?

[Daniel Jacobowitz]

On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 07:34:30PM -0400, Craig Rodrigues wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 06:40:35PM -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote:
> > On Mon, Jul 01, 2002 at 12:13:31PM -0500, William A. Gatliff wrote:
> > > Craig:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Well, I don't know about FreeBSD, but on my RH73 box, my USB-serial
> > > adapter didn't work.  I'm not sure the problem is with gdb, however,
> > > as I didn't get minicom reliably to work either.  :^(
> > 
> > It sounded like Craig wanted to use a kernel debugger; you can't do
> > that over a USB-serial device.
> 
> What's the reason for this?  I'm not a serial interface expert,
> so don't really understand all the issues.

Well, it depends what you're trying to do.  You were talking about
debugging a network stack, which calls for a kernel debugger, not a
userspace debugger at all.  Those use serial because it is a trivial
polled interface and does not require a large driver.

I've used a Keyspan successfully to do userlevel debugging, though - or
to do the client side of kernel debugging.

> Could this potentially work with gdb if I have:
> 
> - Legacy PC with serial port, running kernel, sending debug
>   messages to serial port
> 
> - New laptop with USB only, and no serial port, receiving
>   gdb debug messages over the serial adapter

Yep.

-- 
Daniel Jacobowitz                           Carnegie Mellon University
MontaVista Software                         Debian GNU/Linux Developer