I have finally “mastered”* Visual GDB and I am programming and debugging a Pi Pico via another Pico, and an ESP32 DevKitC via an Olimex ARM-USB-OCD-H.
The issue I have (which I can get round messily) is that when I select “Start without debugging” I have no idea what is happening. The ESP32 appears to load, but it doesn’t run. In debug it is no problem.
I get round it by right-clicking the project, selecting Visual GDB Project Properties, and selecting COM15 (the USB/serial connection). I would prefer if it simply loaded and ran the code.
If it can’t, so be it.
*kludged