Re: Debugging of embedded target applications

[Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org>]

On Tue, May 07, 2002 at 05:05:36PM -0500, Siders, Keith wrote:
> I am using x86 Linux for host development to a MIPS Linux embedded target. I
> finally have a hardware debugger for my target board that works, but I have
> to get large application files downloaded in a timely fashion. The debugger
> must download to the target via JTAG, therefore downloads have lots of bits
> of overhead, i.e. downloads are slow. Is there anything like a gdb server
> that can I run on the target to connect to a remote client via ethernet? I
> don't really want to have to compile a complete gdb tool to run on my target
> board to do this. I don't have the luxury of a lot of memory on this board,
> and no swap space (flash-based system, no hdd). The real catch is I would
> like to be able to resolve the symbols of the application so the debugger
> can be used to set hardware breakpoints, and provide source-level debugging
> of the application. Or am I going about this totally bassackwards?

There is an appropriate program.  In fact, you even got the name right:
it's called "gdbserver", and is included with the GDB distribution.

I recommend you get GDB 5.2, released last week; the gdbserver included
in that version is far superior for GNU/Linux targets to any previous
release.

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