GDB

I'm cleaning up the code of the new version of revolution engine and sometimes i get code-dumps that i have no idea where come from.
So i have decided to use GDB for debbugging thos codedumps but actually I don't know how to do that. I'm on windows and have installed the full devkitpro so gdb must be installed, right?
Then, how do i run it?

In devkitpro the tool is actually called powerpc-gekko-gdb (or something like that). You can set your environment variables to devkitpro's bin folder, so you can access the debugger from anywhere.

I've not actually used core dumps for Wii programs yet, but I assume it dumps a file in elf format, which you can load into GDB to check the state of the machine at the point of the crash.

The following page explains how to load a core dump:
[www.unknownroad.com]

You will then need to learn some GDB commands in order to examine the program state. I haven't tried this either, but Insight or another GUI frontend may make this easier.

Also, I'd recommend getting set up to use GDB even when a core dump doesn't occur. I wrote a post a few days ago pointing to a patch I made to libogc to support debugging with GDB over the wifi connection. You can apply the patch yourself and recompile libogc to support it.
[forum.wiibrew.org]

Some information on how to set up:
[www.wiibrew.org]

Thanks,
cdmac

Just a note on random code dumps: Make sure you're not passing global variables as function parameters. That always gives me a code dump.

Quote
Arikado
Just a note on random code dumps: Make sure you're not passing global variables as function parameters. That always gives me a code dump.

wut.

Mind taking the generic Hello World example and adding whatever you're doing with functions to it in order to demonstrate the crash?

Hi,

I have some problems getting my USB Gekko box & GDB working together.

I've followed the instructions on the USB Gekko web site to install drives etc and configure the driver as a Virtual Comm Port.

I have also setup my application for debugging as per the guide on this site.

I.e. call DEBUG_Init(GDBSTUB_DEVICE_USB, 1) at the start compile with -g and link against db.

I have my application running on the wii and I start up powerpc-gekko-gdb.exe on my pc.

When I type "target remote COM3" I get the following:

(gdb) target remote COM3
Remote debugging using COM3
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
warning: unrecognized item "timeout" in "qSupported" response

And that's it. The appplication keeps running on the wii but gdb is hung.

Has anybody seen this before or have any suggestions as what I can try?

Thanks...

Hi njohn1970,

Were you able to solve the problem?

Quote
njohn1970

When I type "target remote COM3" I get the following:

(gdb) target remote COM3
Remote debugging using COM3
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
warning: unrecognized item "timeout" in "qSupported" response

I get exactly the same problem too. Can anyone shed some light on this please?

Thanks.

Hi,

Nope, I'm affraid I didn't make any further progress with this.

Cheers..

Quote
robert50
Hi njohn1970,

Were you able to solve the problem?

Quote
njohn1970

When I type "target remote COM3" I get the following:

(gdb) target remote COM3
Remote debugging using COM3
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
warning: unrecognized item "timeout" in "qSupported" response

I get exactly the same problem too. Can anyone shed some light on this please?

Thanks.

Thanks for your reply...

I managed to get it to work. I had to uninstall both the "COM3" followed by "USB Serial Converter" from Device Manager, then reinstall it.

Tried uninstalling as suggested and installed the latest drivers, but I still see this issue. I'm on Windows XP 32-bit.

for debugging, i use a few different ways. if i have a code dump that i want to find the line of code to match, just use

powerpc-gekko-addr2line -e "elf file" "address"  #without quotes

or in gdb

symbol-file "elf file"
gdb info line "address"

in the terminal. it also works fine in the cmd in windows. and make sure you should use the elf and not the dol.

if i want to do a bit more poking around, i just open gdb or insight and use the open command to open the elf and dig around. as far as the COM# stuff, i had the same issue. im not sure it the gecko is mounted correctly in gdb/insight as it just froze the app when i tried. i know wiiload had some bug in previous versions that couldnt mount the gecko in windows for me. i had to get a new version of wiiload, (fixed by r-win) to get it to work. maybe there is the same bug in the way gdb and insight try to mount the gecko. once i switched to linux all the gecko tools just magically worked.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2009 07:30AM by giantpune.

Thanks for the additional debugging tips giantpune. You inspired me to finally try out linux; I decided on Ubuntu 9.10. I'm following the devkitppc setup guide for linux here. I installed the premade archive available here. When I do 'make run' I get the following:

wiiload template.dol
wiiload v0.4
coded by dhewg

connecting to 192.168.1.10:4299
sending upload request
sending file size (219104 bytes)
sending data..make: *** [run] Broken pipe

I've been stuck on this for a while. I can ping my Wii just fine... Any ideas?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2009 09:09AM by calvinss4.

Try getting the new version of Wiiload. (0.5).

I recently setup Eclipse* for Wiibrewing on Ubuntu 9.10 and had problems with Wiiload until I updated it.

* at least I think I've set it up correctly - the template works