Compiling gdb for remote debugging

debugging compilation gnu remote-debugging configure
Eric picture Eric · Apr 14, 2011 · Viewed 17.1k times · Source

I'm trying to remote debug an application running on arm9

So far I've been able to cross compile and execute gdbserver on my device.

  1. get gdb (7.2) sources and extract them
  2. ./configure --target=arm-none-linux-gnueabi --with-expat=/usr/local/lib/
  3. make
  4. cd gdb/gdbserver
  5. ./configure --host=arm-none-linux-gnueabi
  6. make
  7. tftp gdbserver to my device
  8. run and connect via gdb to the device

gdbserver "seems" to start correctly and attach itself to my helloworld application

When I try to gdb to the remote server, I get
"warning: Can not parse XML target description; XML support was disabled at compile time"

Obviously, the compilation didn't take into account expat. I'm really unsure about how to specify the expat library path to the configuration script.

Answer

Offirmo picture Offirmo · Sep 9, 2011

(old question but I stumbled into it via googling the same problem)

The problem is the missing "expat" lib. This is hard to guess because :

  1. this lib is optional for compiling gdb
  2. the "expat" name has no clear connection to XML...

So install "expat-dev" (with your packet manager or anything) and then relaunch ./configure. Be careful to install the "dev" version since we are doing recompilation and need the include files.

To be extra-sure, it's possible to add the "--with-expat" to the ./configure call so that it will stop with an error if expat is not found.

Related questions

What's the dSYM and how to use it? (iOS SDK)

Sometimes the compiler produces .dSYM files. I guess this is a debugging related file, but I don't know what it is, and how to use it. What is a .dSYM? How do I use it?

Read More
How to check if program was compiled with debug symbols?

I'd like to trace some code in GIMP and therefore need GIMP with debug symbols enabled. I don't remember whether I have enabled them during compilation. How to check that without recompiling the program?

Read More
Why does not the Application_Start() event fire when I debug my ASP.NET MVC app?

I currently have the following routines in my Global.asax.cs file: public static void RegisterRoutes(RouteCollection routes) { routes.IgnoreRoute("{resource}.axd/{*pathInfo}"); routes.MapRoute( "Default", "{controller}/{action}/{id}", new { controller = "Arrangement", action = "Index", id = "" } ); } protected void Application_Start() { RegisterRoutes(…

Read More