debugging bootloader
sunil
I am planning to work on a new PPC8270 board built in-house. I am
planning to use visionICE to bring up the board. I have WRS WindPower
IDE which has some neat features, like using a known register file for
a particular architecture to initialize my board before I can proceed
further. Once the processor is minimally initialized, I can download
vxworks kernel image and so forth. Under this scheme I don't think I
need any bootloader ready, specific to my new board. However, I will
be just able to debug the vxworks kernel image and application.
But my question is once I pass this stage, and I have my new
bootloader ready, how do I debug bootloader itself using the ICE. can
I put bearkpoints inside bootloader and single step through it. As far
as I know, it might be difficult, at least I might not be able to see
C source, rather I would have to work through assembly. Is that right?
I am not aware how it would work.
I would appreciate your helpful comments and suggestions in this
regards.
Thanks
Sunil
Demrala Rood
> Hi,
>
> I am planning to work on a new PPC8270 board built in-house. I am
> planning to use visionICE to bring up the board. I have WRS WindPower
> IDE which has some neat features, like using a known register file for
> a particular architecture to initialize my board before I can proceed
> further. Once the processor is minimally initialized, I can download
> vxworks kernel image and so forth. Under this scheme I don't think I
> need any bootloader ready, specific to my new board. However, I will
> be just able to debug the vxworks kernel image and application.
>
Yes, with a proper and complete register file, this is true.
> But my question is once I pass this stage, and I have my new
> bootloader ready, how do I debug bootloader itself using the ICE. can
> I put bearkpoints inside bootloader and single step through it. As far
> as I know, it might be difficult, at least I might not be able to see
> C source, rather I would have to work through assembly. Is that right?
> I am not aware how it would work.
If you're talking about debugging bootrom.bin, I'll give you a hint.
There is a file named tmp.o.
It gets created and then deleted during the building of bootrom.bin.
If it happens to not get deleted, it will help you debug the bootrom code.
The rest, you have to figure out for yourself.
DR
James Clough
"sunil" <sun...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:abd8a4b8.04021...@posting.google.com...
Wind River support has an application note that talks about
how to debug the bootloader. It is available on the Wind River
On-Line support web page.
https://secure.windriver.com/windsurf/appnotes/ide/tornado/t2/APN237/appnote237.pdf
You can just log onto the website and search for "Application Note 237 -
Understanding
the Bootrom Image - Debugging tips for vxWorks Bootrom images". As far as
breakpoints
inside the bootloader, H/W breakpoint support by your processor for stepping
the code in flash
would be helpful. HTH
> Thanks
> Sunil
sunil
is very helful. I appreciate your help.
Sunil
"James Clough" <drd...@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<dkCWb.11100$_44.15547@attbi_s52>...
Ganesh Okade
With VisionICE you can debug your code right from the bootup stage.
If you see the VxWorks boot program structure, the initial file is
rominit.s which is placed at the reset vector of the processor. This
HAS to be in assembly since the stack gets initialised only in this
file and no 'C' program can run without the stack. The file to which
rominit.s forks to is dependent on the configuration and for a boot
rom it will be bootconfig.c.
To debug your boot code, place a "Hardware" break point (assuming
your CPU supports one) at the reset vector of your CPU using ICE and
then single step from here. If you are in Bangalore you can contact me
directly since it is difficult to explain this process over emails!
Regards,
Ganesh Okade
Director-Technical
Sunlux Technologies Ltd., Bangalore, India
ganes...@sunlux-india.com