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Altera_Forum's avatar
Altera_Forum
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14 years ago

connect to gdb stub for rtems rt os

Hi,

I have been using the altera nios2-elf-gdb to debug over the usbblaster interface but this debugger knows nothing of the OS and it can be a limiting factor when working in complex programs with many threads.

Therefore, I implemented a gdb stub which knows about the RTEMS RT OS that I am using. I decided that I would communicate with this gdb stub using a JTAG UART which I have added to the design. All of this mostly works and I can connect to it with "target remote | nios2-terminal --instance 1 --quiet --flush" in gdb, but unfortunately when gdb needs to break into the program it sends ascii 3, or ^C, but this causes the nios2-terminal to stop running (typically linux programs stop when they see ^C on the standard input).

So..., here is the question, can one somehow connect directly to the jtag uart via the altera jtag server using TCP from gdb, or some program that I write? Is the protocol spoken by the altera jtag server documented? Is the source code for the nios2-terminal or nios2-gdb-server available so that I can make the necessary revisions (adding a signal handler for SIGINT? Does anyone know of a better way.

I did also try using stty to change the interrupt character code but this hasn't been entirely successful because the nios2-terminal never stops when gdb stops and must be manually killed. I suspect that perhaps "target remote | program" in gdb is mostly intended for simulations debugging and for linux kernel debugging, and that with remote targets gdb typically expects to directly connect to the target via a serial port or to a tcp port.

Any suggestions are appriciated,

Thanks,

Jeff

1 Reply

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor
    14 years ago

    FWIW, I resolved this issue using the netcat program (nc on the command line) which has a nifty feature of creating a tcp server that attaches to the stdin and stdout of nios2-terminal. Once the following Bourne shell script is running (passing command line argument --instance 1 on my system that has two jtag uarts) on the local host I can attach gdb with "target remote localhost:5107". I used the open-bsd version of netcat.

    # !/bin/sh

    cleanup ()

    {

    kill %nc

    rm netcatout

    rm netcatin

    exit

    }

    trap cleanup int quit abrt segv bus ill pipe

    mkfifo netcatout

    mkfifo netcatin

    nc -l 5107 -k > netcatout < netcatin &

    while [ 1 ]

    do

    nios2-terminal $@ --quiet --flush < netcatout > netcatin

    echo restarting nios2-terminal

    done

    cleanup ()