From Symbian Developer Community

The Symbian Virtual Platform (SVP) allows stop-mode debugging of Symbian ROM images running on a PC in the QEMU emulator.

Preconditions

You require a Symbian image which boots on the Symbian Virtual Platform as described here

You'll need Carbide.c++, which you get as part of the ADT or PDT.

Install the GDB hardware debugger plug-in

1. In the Carbide.c++ select Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install...
2. Select Search for new features to install and click Next
3. Click New Remote Site... and set:
   • Name: CDT
   • URL: "http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/ganymede"
4. Click OK and then Finish
5. Expand the CDT item. Now now you should see CDT Main Features and CDT Optional Features. Expand the CDT Optional Features menu. Tick Eclipse C/C++ GDB Hardware Debugging <version number> and click Next
6. Accept the terms of the license agreement and click Next and then Finish
7. Click Install All on the verification screen
8. Click Yes and wait for Carbide.c++ to restart

Note: You may have to change the release name from "ganymede" in step 3, depending on the version of Eclipse that the your Carbide.c++ release is based on. This is the correct version for at least ADT 1.0 and PDT 1.0 - 1.3.

Download and install ARM-ELF tools

1. Download and run the GNUARM GCC-4.3 toolchain from here: http://www.gnuarm.org/bu-2.19_gcc-4.3.2-c-c++_nl-1.16.0_gi-6.8.exe

Install elf4rom

ELF4ROM creates symbol and debug information for your ROM image. Copy elf4rom.zip from your Symbian syborg environment \sf\adaptation\qemu\docs\wiki\ELF4ROM.doc (Yes, the zip file is indeed embedded in a Word document!). Extract the content to a local directory. The Word document (ELF4ROM.doc) contains comprehensive documentation.

Debug Setup

Create an ELF file from your Symbian ROM image

Example:

cd \sf\os\kernelhwsrv\kernel\eka\rombuild
elf4rom.exe -i SYBORGARMV5D.IMG -l SYBORGARMV5D.log -o SYBORGARMV5D.elf  -p 0x0 -d _SYBORG_EKERN.EXE _SYBORG_KASYBORG.DLL _SYBORG_ESERIAL.PDD _SYBORG_EKEYB.DLL

• This example assumes that the location of elf4rom.exe as been added to path environment variable
• SYBORGARMV5D.log is used here, if you didn't explicitly rename it when you built the ROM it'll be called ROMBUILD.log
• The resulting ELF file in the is SYBORGARMV5D.elf

Read more about elf4rom usage in \sf\adaptation\qemu\docs\wiki\ELF4ROM.doc

Create a Makefile project in Carbide.c++

1. Create a new directory under your Carbide workspace directory and copy your elf file to the directory
2. Start Carbide.c++ (if not already running)
3. Create a new C++ makefile project. File -> New -> Project
4. Tick the Show All Wizards checkbox and select C++ -> C++ Project
5. Click Next and agree to turn on hidden UI feature
6. Type the directory in which your elf file is located to the Project name field
7. Select Makefile Project and in the toolchains box select MinGW GCC
8. Click Next and then Finish
9. Right-click the project you just created in Project Explorer view and select Properties
10. Expand C/C++ Build and click Settings. In the Binary parser window un-tick PE Windows Parser and tick GNU Elf Parser
11. Select the GNU Elf Parser option to make the commands addr2line and c++filt visible. Change addr2line to arm-elf-addr2line and c++filt to arm-elf-c++filt. (NOTE: If you dont have the directory of your arm-elf tools defined in your path you must give the full path for these executables.)
12. Click OK

You should now be able to to explore the contents of your ELF file in the Project Explorer view of your eclipse environment. To test the environment navigate to syborg_keyboard.cpp and add a break point to DKeyboardPs2Soc::Isr() method. (Note: Depending on configuration, you may get to navigate the elf file by symbol rather than filename - need to investigate what causes this - in this case, you'll have to select the mangled symbol name, right click and select add breakpoint).

Create a debug configuration

1. In the eclipse UI click Run -> Debug Configurations. Having installed gdbjtag as described above you should see a GDB Hardware Debugging option in Debug Configurations window
2. Right-click GDB Hardware Debugging and click New
3. In the resulting menu choose Main tab
   • Give a good name to your configuration
   • Select the project you created in the Project box
   • Type your ELF file name in the C/C++ Application box
   • Select Disable Auto Build
4. Select the Debugger tab
   • Type arm-elf-gdb in the GDB Command box
   • Un-tick Use remote target
5. Select the Startup tab and type tar rem localhost:1234 in the Run Commands box
6. Click Close

Start your debug session

Start simulation

1. Start a command prompt and change to the directory for the Carbide workspace project you just created - the one your elf file is located in
2. Start your QEMU syborg Symbian simulation.Example: <path to your build environment>\symbian-qemu-0.9.1\bin\arm-none-symbian-elf-qemu-system.exe -M <path to your build environment>\sf\adaptation\qemu\baseport\syborg\syborg.dtb -kernel SYBORGARMV5D.elf -S -s
   1. At this point the QEMU Symbian simulation window should appear (with QEMU [Stopped] label on it)

Connect debugger to simulation

1. In your eclipse UI click Run -> Debug Configurations
2. Now you should have your Debug configuration visible in the "Debug Configurations" dialog - if not, select it from the list
3. Press Debug in the bottom right of the dialog
4. If your eclipse perspective is not switched automatically to Debug click Window -> Open Perspective -> Debug
5. You don't need to worry about possible error "No symbol "new" in current context." visible in the Console window
6. In the "Console" window enter "c" (or you can click the green arrow in the IDE to continue debugging - this will give an error the first time but work properly after that)
7. Now you should have your Symbian simulation booted up
8. Enter a keypress to your Symbian window and you should hit to a previously added breakpoint in DKeyboardPs2Soc::Isr method

Debug Notes

1. Be carefull with your path environment variable setup. For example it seemed to cause problems if eclipse was able to found previous gdb installation (like http://downloads.sourceforge.net/mingw/gdb-6.6.tar.bz2).
2. Read more about debugging from your Symbian syborg environment \sf\os\QEMU\docs\wiki\Stop-mode Debugging.doc

Mapping a directory on the host OS to the QEMU S: drive

A very useful feature of QEMU is the ability to map a directory on the host OS to the S: drive.

To do this create a directory called svphostfs in the root of the drive from which QEMU is run. For example, if QEMU is run from the C: drive create C:\svphostfs.

Files can be copied to the S: drive in the emulated Symbian OS environment and they will appear here. This makes retrieval of logs very straightforward.

Additionally you can copy files to the mapped directory (i.e. 'svphostfs') and then copy them to the appropriate location in the Symbian OS instance. You can even create a directory 'svphostfs\sys\bin' and copy binaries there to make them usable in the Symbian OS. This feature reduces much of the need for building ROM images.

Comments

Davidcrookes said…

Markw said…

Davidcrookes said…

Markw said…

Davidcrookes said…

While investigating these issues I was examining whether the binutils were upto date and noticed that there is a gnuarm derivative project, YAGARTO,  http://yagarto.de/ This version avoids cygwin and presumably uses mingw or some such. Installing the instance yagarto-bu-2.20_gcc-4.4.2-c-c++_nl-1.18.0_gdb-7.0.1_20091223.exe (look at http://www.yagarto.de/index.html#download) and getting rid of gnuarm from paths, and reconfiguring everything to use the binutils in the yagarto installation, along with removing cygwin from the path seemed to give much better results now.

Paulb said…

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