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Presentation:  Linux Debug : a new paradigm

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Today, Linux is the fastest growing embedded operating system in the world. Bringing Linux up on an embedded target and debugging it and associated applications present new challenges for embedded systems programmers.
These challenges, in turn, must be addressed by the designers and suppliers of tools for these programmers.
It is difficult to port to a new platform without some method of accessing the system boot information console and the login console. On many headless targets there is either no good candidate for this functionality or such candidate is not available at boot time. For example, cell phones simply do not have serial interfaces. In addition, the MMU-based memory model makes classic halt-mode debugging difficult or even impossible. Because all tasks share the same virtual address in Linux, classic breakpoint methods need modification. Debug register breakpoints (hardware breakpoints) are of little use.

This presentation discusses a debug topology where a hardware assisted debug tool combines halt mode processor control with task mode debugging to effectively solve all of these issues. This method provides a test environment console that uses virtually no production resources. In addition, it provides seamless transition between kernel debugging and application, or process, debugging using a single graphical user interface.

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