Re: Debugging the MIPS processor using GDB

[Brian Foster <brian.foster@innova-card.com>]

On Wednesday 13 August 2008 15:49:39 Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Aug 2008, Brian Foster wrote:
> 
> >   Re the FS²:  [ ... ]  at least one thing doesn't work
> >  reliably for me [ ... ]:  Breakpoints in the Linux kernel.
> >  They do detonate.  Then, sometimes, I can ‘c’(ontinue) or
> >  ‘s’(tep) Ok.  But other times, when I ‘c’ or ‘s’, the
> >  breakpoint detonates again and I'm stuck.  [ ... ]
> 
>  Hmm, odd.  It looks like a cache coherence issue.

Maciej,

  That would be my guess also.

>  It could be a bug in your version of FS2 software -- did you raise the issue with them?  

  I've been trying to.  (I cannot say more on this ATM, sorry!)

  I'm using the most recent FS² (2.4.4) with the most recent
 SDE-Lite from MIPS (V6.06.01).  Older versions of FS²/SDE
 had the same(?) issue.  (This is with a 4KSd core, running
 Little Endian.)

  What _might_ be an issue/cause is we're using our own
 home-grown ‘gdb’ scripts (to init the memory, load the
 kernel, etc.).  I didn't write them, but I have looked
 them over, and they _look_ Ok to me.


> Anyway, as a workaround try setting "coherent=on" (quoting from memory)
> in fs2.ini (just an idea -- it may not work and you will lose some
> performance though) or use hardware breakpoints.

  As it turns out, I _have_ been running Coherent On!
 So I tried turning if Off, just to see what would happen.
 No difference.

  The behavior I saw was:

    1. gdb     b xxx_open
    2. target  cat /dev/xxx
    3. (breakpoint detonates)
    4. gdb     x/i $pc     (all is Ok)
    5. gdb     c           (Ok)
    6. target  cat /dev/xxx
    7. (breakpoint detonates)
    8. gdb     x/i $pc     (wrong! instruction is ‘sdbbp’.)

  I'm now stuck.  Any attempt to ‘c’ or ‘s’ just hits the
 breakpoint again.

  I tried some “mdi cacheflush” at some plausible-seeming
 points, all to no effect.  I also tried deleting the
 breakpoint (after step 8), which was a disaster:  (From
 memory) when I then ‘c’(ontinued), ‘gdb’ hung, and the
 ‘sysnav’ went into an infinite loop of reporting a
 breakpoint.  ;-(

 ( I seem to recall also having an issue with hardware
  breakpoints, but cannot recall for certain ATM; tests
  will have to wait until later ....  ;-\  )

  All ideas and suggestions are very welcome!

cheers!
	-blf-

-- 
“How many surrealists does it take to   | Brian Foster
 change a lightbulb? Three. One calms   | somewhere in south of France
 the warthog, and two fill the bathtub  |   Stop E$$o (ExxonMobil)!
 with brightly-coloured machine tools.” |      http://www.stopesso.com