AW: GDB Server for Xilinx Microblaze

AW: GDB Server for Xilinx Microblaze

[Hoefle Marco]

Hi Michael,
Thanks for your reply.
Xilinx won't support officially any Linux related issues (I used to work in the support center and Linux cases were the easy cases: sorry not supported)

So the Microblaze support in GDB 7.2 is for debugging standalone applications together with XMD only or would it work together with a cross-compiled gdb server?

Embedded distributors like bluecat or petalogix have ported GDB for Linux on Microblaze but the free old versions (at least from petalogix) had quite an old GDB + gdbserver which didn't work properly (slow and crashes when embedding them in an eclipse environment)

So do you have any hints for me how to proceed to get a new GDB + gdbserver up?

Thanks,
Marco




 


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Michael Eager [mailto:eager@eagerm.com] 
Gesendet: Montag, 28. Februar 2011 16:40
An: Hoefle Marco
Betreff: Re: GDB Server for Xilinx Microblaze

Hoefle Marco wrote:
> Hello,
> we are using Linux running on a Xilinx Microblaze in a FPGA.
> It runs fine but we lack proper debugging (we are doing it old school
> like: printfs...),
> so modern stuff like code stepping within an eclipse cdt environment
> would be greatly appreciated :-)
> Thus I had a look into the new GDB7.2 sources and I saw that there is
> some Microblaze stuff in the GDB source itself.
> So from my understanding I can use GDB 7.2 on my Debian Workstation and
> all I need is to cross-compile the gdb server?
> I tried it but it seems that cross-compiling the GDB Server is not a
> trivial task as it looks to me that there is no support for the
> Microblaze.
> Can somebody instruct me how to get the GDB server running on the
> Microblaze?
> We are running the latest stable Mainline Linux Kernel (2.6.37) and the
> GCC cross compiler is version 4.1.2.

Hi Marco --

I support the MicroBlaze tools, but only the non-Linux versions.
You should contact Xilinx Technical Support with your questions.

-- 
Michael Eager	 eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306  650-325-8077

Re: AW: GDB Server for Xilinx Microblaze

[Michael Eager]

Hoefle Marco wrote:
> Hi Michael, Thanks for your reply. Xilinx won't support officially any Linux related issues (I
> used to work in the support center and Linux cases were the easy cases: sorry not supported)
> 
> So the Microblaze support in GDB 7.2 is for debugging standalone applications together with XMD
> only or would it work together with a cross-compiled gdb server?
> 
> Embedded distributors like bluecat or petalogix have ported GDB for Linux on Microblaze but the
> free old versions (at least from petalogix) had quite an old GDB + gdbserver which didn't work
> properly (slow and crashes when embedding them in an eclipse environment)

Hi Marco --

As you already know, Xilinx maintains a separate repository
with the Linux versions of MicroBlaze gdb and other tools.
You can find info here:  http://xilinx.wikidot.com
These are older versions and have not been updated to the
current GNU versions.

The tools for MicroBlaze in the GNU tree only support standalone
embedded systems.  Gdb has only been tested with Xilinx's
JTAG connection to the target using XMD.

Support for Linux on MicroBlaze in the GNU tree is essentially
the same as in the older versions, which, as you have noted,
has not been ported to work with the current version of gdb &
gdbserver.  I don't have a suitable environment to run Linux on
MicroBlaze, so I cannot address any of these issues.

> So do you have any hints for me how to proceed to get a new GDB + gdbserver up?

I understand that Xilinx is interested in upgrading the
Linux tool chain to the same version in the GNU tree and
presumably submitting any changes to FSF.  I don't have
any details on the when this might happen; the status on
this has not changed in many months.  Naturally, updating the
GNU tree gdb and gdbserver to work on correctly on MicroBlaze
Linux doesn't require Xilinx's involvement, the projects are
open source.  It does require a suitable environment and
someone to do the port.

Sorry I can't be more help.

-- 
Michael Eager	 eager@eagercon.com
1960 Park Blvd., Palo Alto, CA 94306  650-325-8077