Runtime Debugging¶

Subpages¶

Introduction¶

The purpose of this page is to give an overview of the current state of the explored runtime debugging setups for TRENTOS on the supported platforms. The main focus of the page will be on three different setups:

• QEMU + gdbgui → A free open source toolchain that does not require any HW and uses the QEMU emulator together with the gdbgui visual debugger

• FT232H + OpenOCD + gdbgui → A free open source toolchain that does not require any special HW apart from the (cheap) Adafruit FT232H breakboard based on the FTDI chip available here: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2264

• Segger J-Link Base Compact + Ozone → A toolchain from Segger which uses the J-Link Base Compact debug probe (https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/j-link-base/) together with their proprietary SW Ozone (https://www.segger.com/products/development-tools/ozone-j-link-debugger/).
  Note: Depending on the probe used, Ozone might require a license to use (see: https://www.segger.com/products/development-tools/ozone-j-link-debugger/#ozone-licensing). Additionally, a setup using VS Code (instead of Ozone) together with the J-Link probe is showcased.

Overview of the Functionalities¶

Debugging Applications Running in QEMU¶

Debugging Applications Running on HW Platforms¶

OpenOCD Toolchain¶

Segger Toolchain¶

Additional Notes¶

• As it is clear from the tables presented in the previous sections, runtime debugging has the most limited scope on the RPi3B+ platform since it is not supported by the Segger toolchain, and a limited set of features is available when using the OpenOCD toolchain. Still, the setup for this platform is included in the documentation to serve as a starting point to be expanded upon by more experienced users or as an additional tool (with limited functionalities) which can be of use in certain circumstances.

• Even though the feature tables present a similar story when it comes to using the OpenOCD toolchain compared to the Segger toolchain with the Nitrogen6_SoloX and BD-SL-i.MX6 platforms, the user experience is quite different. The benefits of the Segger toolchain are primarily the convenience of using an IDE-like tool like Ozone compared to using OpenOCD + gdbgui and a simpler HW setup. Also, Ozone contains more advanced features compared to gdbgui, but their usability depends on the use case and the experience level of the user. Finally, the down side of the Segger toolchain is the price of the probes and the SW license for Ozone.