Visual GDB blue pill tutorial steps?

[paynterf]

Brand-new trial version user.  I’m trying to follow the VisualGDB ‘blue pill’ tutorial, and it looks like there were some steps missing for a first-time user

1. The text says “Although we can use a stand-alone ST-Link programmer, in this tutorial we will use the one embedded into a STM32 Nucleo board”  I just have a ST-LINK V2 device, so I want to use that instead.  There is a 5th (red) wire from the Nucleo board to the blue pill reset pin, which is apparently required to implement ‘connect under reset’, but nothing is said about exactly what that does.  Other tutorials seem to indicate that this wire is not needed, so I’m confused.  Does this wire simply force the reset line high or low, or does it do something else?
2. When I get to the ‘Debug Method’ page of the New Arduino Project wizard, it is completely blank, except for a ‘Debug using:’ drop-down list box.  Using this box I can select ‘USB Devices’ or ‘Debug Methods’.  Which do I select?  Also, if I select ‘USB Devices’ and then ‘ST-LINK V2, I get a pop-up dialog asking if I want to download and install OCD.  I learned elsewhere that OCD is a tool for reading and decoding binary files, so I suspect the answer is ‘YES’ but I’d like to get some confirmation before I proceed.

TIA,

Frank

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[paynterf]

I went ahead and installed Open OCD and continued with the tutorial, but I wasn’t able to successfully upload the ‘blink’ program to the blue pill.  Here is the GDB session log.  I have also attached a screenshot showing the project settings.

 

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C:\Users\Frank\Documents\ArduinoData\packages\STMicroelectronics\tools\xpack-arm-none-eabi-gcc\13.2.1-1.1\bin\\arm-none-eabi-gdb –interpreter mi “C:/Users/Frank/Documents/VisualGDB/Projects/ArduinoProject1/Output/Generic_STM32F1_series/Debug/ArduinoProject1.ino.elf”
:62210: Interrupted function call.
:62210: Interrupted function call.
“monitor” command not supported by this target.
“monitor” command not supported by this target.
“monitor” command not supported by this target.
You can’t do that when your target is `exec’
The program is not being run.
Invalid thread id: 1
No registers.
Invalid thread id: 1
No registers.
Invalid thread id: 1
No registers.
Invalid thread id: 1
No registers.
The program is not being run.

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[support]

Hi,

Based on what you described,  it looks like a wiring issue. Please refer to your board and JTAG debugger documentation for details on getting the wiring correctly. VisualGDB cannot automatically fix it for you, or troubleshoot any wiring issues.

If you are not sure, please make sure you can debug the same board with the same example by running OpenOCD manually. If it works outside VisualGDB, we can help you configure VisualGDB to match that setup. If the board doesn’t work outside VisualGDB either, you will have to figure it out first before trying VisualGDB.

[paynterf]

Thanks for your reply.  Yes, I agree that the first issue I noted above is a wiring issue.  I was hoping someone familiar with that tutorial would be able to tell me what that red wire does or where it connects on the ST-LINK side.  The tutorial states that it is necessary to accomplish the ‘connect under reset’ procedure, but that doesn’t tell me how to connect it up.  Is the red wire connected to GND, +V, or some dynamic output – I can’t tell.

TIA,

Frank

 

[support]

Sorry, we tried helping our users with such issues before, but it always backfired. Users would then run into much bigger problems further down the road, and would expect our support to review complex schematics of custom boards, or look through large projects written by someone else, that somehow interfere with debugging logic.

So, we had to limit our regular support to issues that are specific to our tools. If you would like us to explain anything else, we can do it at our consulting rate. You can read more about it here.

[paynterf]

I guess I don’t quite understand.  My interest in Visual GDB stems from finding that it integrates with VS2022, and specifically because there was a tutorial showing how to debug STM32 firmware.  Don’t you support your own tutorials?

 

TIA,

Frank

 

 

[support]

VisualGDB works just fine, as long as the board itself is debuggable and not broken. If you are already struggling to get it working, just connecting to it with VisualGDB won’t automatically fix the issues, and our support won’t be able to troubleshoot or replace the board for you.

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