ESP8266 GDB debugging Adafruit Huzzah ESP8266 breakout

[bdelarre]

Anyone had any luck getting any of the samples working with the gdbstub on a board like this?

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah-esp8266-breakout/pinouts

I’ve been programming the board over the serial uart and would like to use the gdbstub with the gdb debugger. I flashed the IoT LEDBlink example without the gdbstub enabled and it worked perfectly. But once I turned on the gdbstub and launched the debugger I got the following:

C:\SysGCC\esp8266\python27\python.exe "C:\SysGCC\esp8266\esp8266-bsp\esptool.py" elf2image "E:\Workspace\BlinkyTest\LEDBlinkDebug\LEDBlinkDebug/Debug/LEDBlinkDebug.elf" --flash_freq 40m --flash_mode qio --flash_size 4m
set remotebaud 74880
&"set remotebaud 74880\n"
^done
target remote \\.\COM23
&"target remote \\\\.\\COM23\n"
~"Remote debugging using \\\\.\\COM23\n"
~"Ignoring packet error, continuing...\n"
&"warning: unrecognized item \"timeout\" in \"qSupported\" response\n"

Any suggestions how to get this running?

[support]

VisualGDB should normally fix this problem for you. Simply select your port in VisualGDB Project properties and it should get it to work.

[bdelarre]

Yeah I tried that multiple times, it wasn’t a port problem, since VisualGDB could happily flash the firmware over to the device, so communication was happening. But the gdb connection never worked no matter what I tried.

In the end I bought an Olimex ARM-USB-TINY-H jtag debugger and I now have that up and running instead.

[support]

Hi,

Good to know it works now. BTW, we have recently released a new toolchain with an updated gdb that should be a bit more stable.

[EklundJL]

Bdelarre-

 

I had the same problem (compiles and flashes without the stub, hangs with it) using the gdbstub even with the latest build so I’m considering getting the Olimex debugger.

When you used the Olimex ARM-USB-TINY-H jtag debugger with the Huzzah board did you

1. Need to level translate (esp8266 uses 3.3 v)?
2. Have problems installing the required drivers (and disabling others)?

[support]

Hi,

We did not use a level translator; the Olimex debugger worked just fine without it.

If you encounter any driver issues, simply run UsbDriverTool and install the WinUSB driver for your Olimex debugger via right-click.

[Author]

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