Linux kernel, kgdb, vmware

Setup kgdb with supported kernel is quite straight forward by following the document. But there do have some small roadblocks, especially when you try to run the Linux as a VM in VMWare server.

  • With 2.6.8 or later kernel, you will not see “Waiting for connection from remote gdb…”, as pointed out at here. I was panic for a while when I could not figure out where the kernel stopped at;
  • Setup VMWare virtual serial port by following this.
  • Tricky: by default, kgdb over serial will use serial port 1 in CONFIG_KGDB_PORT_NUM, which is 2nd serial port. Had better change this to serial port 0, which is 1st serial port. The reason is we, at least I, usually add only 1 serial port in VMWare server…

Notes:

  • kdgb cvs 02/07/2007 version can apply cleanly on 2.6.17 and runs ok.
  • kgdb latest can be found via “git clone git://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trini/linux-2.6-kgdb-testing.git”, as of 02/07/07, it is based on 2.6.18

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