"Symbol file could not be found" - Why???

[vc6vc6]

I am trying to do perform remote debugging on a User mode application
that I have written.

On the server side (debugee, application) I issue (in a single line):

ntsd.exe -server com:port=1,baud=115200,channel=0
-v D:\myproj\vc_mswuddll\myapp.exe

On the client side (debugger, controller machine) I issue:

windbg -remote com:port=1,baud=115200,channel=0
-y D:\myproj\vc_mswuddll -srcpath D:\myproj

As soon as windbg is invoked, I can see that it successfully connect
to the debugee, with all relevant benign messages.

However, I also receive a message that I don't quite understand:

*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export
symbols for ntdll.dll -

I specifically provided the path for the directory where both the
executable ( (myapp.exe) *and* the symbol file (myapp.pdb) reside: -
y D:\myproj\vc_mswuddll

Why does WinDbg tell me that "Symbol file could not be found"?

What does this mean?

And how do I fix this problem in order to be able to breakpoint on a
specific line in my application's source code (note - I am not using a
checked build of Windows XP, where my app is running).

Thanks,
Victor

[Mario Hewardt [MSFT]]

Hi Victor,

The debugger is complaining about symbols for ntdll.dll not being found. If
you're strictly speaking only interested in debugging your own apps code
then you can safely ignore this error. If, however, you want symbols for the
OS components as well, you can do the following:

.symfix
.sympath+ D:\myproj\vc_mswuddll
.reload

Thanks,
Mario

"vc6vc6" <vc6...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1192630687....@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com...

[vc6vc6]

On Oct 17, 11:52 am, "Mario Hewardt [MSFT]"

<mar...@online.microsoft.com> wrote:
> Hi Victor,
>
> The debugger is complaining about symbols for ntdll.dll not being found. If
> you're strictly speaking only interested in debugging your own apps code
> then you can safely ignore this error. If, however, you want symbols for the
> OS components as well, you can do the following:
>
> .symfix
> .sympath+ D:\myproj\vc_mswuddll
> .reload
>

Thank you, Mario. You were correct about only interested in debugging
my own apps code, so for now I will ignore this error (I was actually
able to break into my source code a few minutes ago, which empirically
proves that the PDB file *was* found).

I will keep your .symfix tip in mind, if I ever need to get into
Windows code. I may actually need to, since I am debugging a very
strange problem with MWFMO.

Thanks,
Victor