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Altera_Forum
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20 years ago

Insight

I'm running NIOSII v.5.0 with QuartusII v.5.0 on my Windows 2000 machine. The

installation of both packages was ok. I have built a .elf file containing my application (without use of NIOSII IDE) and I want to debug it using Insight (GDB)

from the Cygwin command line. I run Insight using the following command:

nios2-debug --cable=usb-blaster <myApplicationFile.elf>

On the console screen I see no error messages and my application is downloaded

into hardware memory. I&#39;m able to see the first two lines of my application. The

problem is concerning the commands to run the application. No commands work

and, if I try to type the commands on the GDB console, GDB doesn&#39;t reply also

when I type wrong commands. It seems GDB is not running

Please, can you help me ?

Best Regards

/Alessandro

2 Replies

  • Altera_Forum's avatar
    Altera_Forum
    Icon for Honored Contributor rankHonored Contributor

    --- Quote Start ---

    originally posted by alessandro@Dec 21 2005, 01:02 PM

    i&#39;m running niosii v.5.0 with quartusii v.5.0 on my windows 2000 machine. the

    installation of both packages was ok. i have built a .elf file containing my application (without use of niosii ide) and i want to debug it using insight (gdb)

    from the cygwin command line. i run insight using the following command:

    nios2-debug --cable=usb-blaster <myapplicationfile.elf>

    on the console screen i see no error messages and my application is downloaded

    into hardware memory. i&#39;m able to see the first two lines of my application. the

    problem is concerning the commands to run the application. no commands work

    and, if i try to type the commands on the gdb console, gdb doesn&#39;t reply also

    when i type wrong commands. it seems gdb is not running

    please, can you help me ?

    best regards

    /alessandro

    <div align='right'><{post_snapback}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=11704)

    --- quote end ---

    --- Quote End ---

    If I remember correctly, nios2-debug is a vestige of the &#39;legacy SDK&#39; -- are you using that?

    As an alternative I would suggest the direct approach - this is an excerpt from our eCos for Nios II document that describes loading & debugging via insight; there is nothing magical about an eCos .elf from one you create, so this should in theory work for you as well. Granted, there may be some tweaking required:

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

    --- Quote Start ---

    8.2 JTAG debug using Insight

    To debug an application using nios2-elf-insight, you should first launch nios2-gdb-server to establish a JTAG connection to the board. This is done by running the following command from within an SDK shell:

    > nios2-gdb-server –-tcpport=2343 &

    To debug an application named “hello” in the current directory, you should then run:

    > nios2-elf-insight hello

    This will launch the insight debug interface. To connect to the board, open the GDB console by selecting “Console” from the “view” menu. Then type the following commands:

    > target remote :2343

    > load

    > break main

    > jump *_start

    This will: establish a connection to the target; download the executable; set a breakpoint at main; and then begin execution.

    You can use these same commands when using nios2-elf-gdb in place of nios2-elf-insight.

    From here, it is then possible to step, break, continue etc. You can find further information the Insight online help (select “help” at the top of the Insight window).[/b]

    --- Quote End ---

    Note that the above example assumes that "hello" is an .elf file... just without any .elf file extension.