This Is 100% How You Should Be Debugging | How to Use OpenOCD to Debug Embedded Software with GDB

[@edgeeffect]

When you talk about debuggers please don't forget The Black Magic probe.... so cheap, so easy, so cheap! I debug my Blue Pill with... well.... another Blue Pill!!!

[@Otakutaru]

Would someone do a Black Magic Probe for dummies?

[@syousufimam]

Yes, that's already there in my to-do list. Black Magic 101 ( From making your own BMP using blue pill to debugging STM 32 with BMP) It's like a Swiss knife for embedded enthusiast.

[@andybrown-maw1593]

Thanks so much, you would not believe how few, straight forward explanations of how to do this there are out there.

[@gideonz74b]

I think I learned more in the last 7 and a half minute than I had expected. Wow! Well done!

[@Kid420]

This is great, I’ve always wanted to get into embedded systems programming and it seems as your channel is where I’ll start 😁🙏🏽

[@paulvohs9889]

I wasn't aware you could toggle the display format while inside gdb... I normally just run with --tui when I start. Will have to give that a go next time!

[@eyalgerber]

Really informative video. Thanks a lot. For me personally you hit the nail on the head with this video. It was exactly what I was looking for.

[@chrisidema]

Thank you so much! It's really hard to find working up-to-date examples like this. So many old examples don't work anymore. I was able to get SWO working. And I also got debugging of the nRF using the st-link working.

[@LowLevelTV]

Glad it helped!

[@magnoelmagnifico957]

Wow, this is really cool! I didn't know gdb could do that

[@LowLevelTV]

Thanks for watching!

[@burningglory2373]

Almost every embedded system I have worked with, one of the engineers has dedicated a UART for a serial debugging console.

[@benarcher372]

Perfect! I've done something similar with two rpi picos. Now I know also what openOCD actually does! Thanks.

[@SomeTechGuy666]

FYI, in Fedora, the st-link package is stlink, not st-link. Also, there is no gdb-multiarch on Fedora. Use regular gdb but set arch once you start it. Great video.

[@jorgelinares1944]

Thank you so much, it is really hard to find simple, relevant information regarding debugging on embedded

[@conorstewart2214]

Not to be that guy but is there a GUI for it? I’ve used the STM32CubeIDE and it has a debug mode that has all the functionality of this and probably more, like having a live view of global variables as the program runs and being able to see the disassembly, and it seems it would be easier just to scroll through your code whilst it running and just click to create a breakpoint wherever you want it, the interface in the IDE seems a lot easier to use with more functionality than this, so is there a non STM GUI version of this for other chips?

[@brandonallen7748]

The IDEs are using these exact tools, the user just interacts with it through a GUI.

[@conorstewart2214]

@@brandonallen7748 I know that, I was asking is there a non vendor specific version of the GUI.

[@CandyHam]

I had the same question. This seems like an overly obtuse command-ljne way to accomplish the same thing that's provided in cube IDE's GUI

[@youtubeviewer7077]

Almost every editor/IDE can talk to GDB, so it should be usable with any of them, it's a matter of correctly configuring them. There are videos on youtube on how to setup with VSCode and Eclipse (IIRC).

[@jakehallam2113]

Jesus Christ, I've wasted a week being stuck with debugging because I forgot to add the "target extended-remote" step to my damn notes! Thanks for the video though, the instructions hold up for other boards too.

[@Ma_X64]

Oscilloscope helps with debugging very much. Sometimes I can make all the job using only one or two pins to out either logical states through them or use them as a clock/data pair to see bytes on the oscilloscope directly.

[@BinGanzLieb]

thats bad

[@Ma_X64]

@@BinGanzLieb that's fast)

[@РусланШагиахметов-к7м]

@@Ma_X64 For sure, but how many of us have an oscilloscope?)

[@JayDee-b5u]

​@@РусланШагиахметов-к7мwe all should

[@DeLaCruzer11]

Are you sure you're not just trying to brag?

[@minirop]

that's why I love my little Arduino Zero, since it has an EDBG included. (I also have a jlink for my other boards)

[@diegopinilla3431]

great video! never debugged a microcontroller, but it doesn't seems too difficult.

[@ryanmckenna2047]

Thanks, this helped me a lot! I had one issue though the source code wasn't showing for me in gdb, does anyone know why this could be?

[@michaelsnater2345]

Howdy! Thanks for this. Your video helped me quite a bit. I'm debugging a c++ project on a Pi Pico W using the pi debugger. Is it possible to get your advice what I'm doing wrong. Id be happy to pay you for your time.

[@TheStuartstardust]

I think it might be easier to just code correct the first time 😁🤓😂 ..just kidding, really nice, did not know this could be done command line like this! Good content! 💪👌👍🤓

[@LowLevelTV]

😁

[@bob-ny6kn]

Do you realize that you are completely correct? Debug allows you to learn to achieve that level. Back when I taught myself to code, I typed-in code from a paper form (hand written or printed), watched it fail, learned to recognize my failures, and poof - eventually coded for top airlines... where bugs do not fly well... So, I live by, you are alive by, and want to emphasize your post: "Code right or die."

[@hackvlix]

@@bob-ny6kn Maybe one of the top airline's engineers should have done some debugging on their 737 MAX.

[@bob-ny6kn]

@@hackvlix eeek. That was a managerial failure. Reliving the space shuttle.

[@hackvlix]

@@bob-ny6kn Fair enough. Debugging the management is probably harder.

[@adammontgomery7980]

Just spent 2 days banging my head against the desk trying to get I2C working on the blue-pill using the libopencm3 library. By the way, you have to gpio_set(I2CPORT, SDA|SCL) to get it to work (at least in master-mode). Question: I found some 'optimized out' variables while debugging INSIDE libopencm3 code. I don't know if the debugger symbols were optimized out or if the variables were, any thoughts? I changed the -O level in the library's makefile, and re-compiled. Thanks so much for these videos, man. I tried cubeIDE and hated it; register level programming is fun and all, but I want to actually get stuff done. You introduced me to this library that fits my style.

[@coolink243]

Hey man, I am also trying to setup i2c using libopencm3 with no luck. Seems you have it set up. Could you help me out?

[@adammontgomery7980]

@@coolink243 I'd like to. Have you got the libopencm3-template repo cloned?

[@coolink243]

@@adammontgomery7980 hey man thanks for reaching out. Yes I have cloned the repo

[@CorneliusHart-bd7rl]

this is such a good tutorial!

[@ikefir]

Hello, LLL, may i humbly request a dive into GD32VF103 MCU. It's a 32-bit RISC-V chip. It is rather basic at the moment, but something tells me that as time goes on this architecture will become more and more mainstream. And a lot of folks would like to watch series on RISC-V assembly as well as corresponding GCC stack. Cheers.

[@meanxmeanx1763]

Gigadevice does not seem interested in selling it. it's becoming harder & more expensive to find them on ali express. Too bad, it's a good enough chip.

[@hacksontable5850]

Great tutorial, thank you.

[@AlessioSangalli]

Another fantastic video, thanks.

[@LowLevelTV]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@hwhat]

Hello,just found ur channel,i want to ask if arduino is a good entry to low level programming

[@LowLevelTV]

Arduino is a great place to start!

[@hwhat]

@@LowLevelTV thanks for the reply! I just saw ur video about arduino too,cant wait to get started

[@edgeeffect]

I "restarted" low level on Arduino. Then moved onto "AVR style" C. And then got back into assembly. But I wouldn't have done any of it without Arduino to get me started... it's a great introduction.

[@jbvalle]

Thank you sooo much for this tutorial!

[@herbertpocket8855]

Hold up could I use one of these little chips instead of a PLC for some basic robotics? Like I would have to use different relays but that may be worth the sacrifice if I don’t have to use ladder programming

[@OthnielCundangan]

My only experience with embedded is from messing around with Arduino using PlatformIO in vscode. Is this better than PIO? Or maybe they can compliment each other?

[@felixbaum2180]

awesome tutorial, thanks!

[@krishnakhandelwal9466]

Thank you. Atleast I could see the ST-link V2 leds blink after so long. After target extended-remote localhost:3333 command, OpenOCD gives an error: "undefined debug reason 7 - target needs reset" and GDB gives: "0x00000000 in ?? ()" What does these two error mean and how to resolve it ?

[@Dygear]

I take it it's possible to do this with rust code as well?

[@LowLevelTV]

Teehee maybe

[@MrKristian252]

What's the difference between PyOCD and OpenOCD? I haven't used them directly, but I have used software that relies on PyOCD

[@BinGanzLieb]

whats the different to hit debug in eclipse ide with openocd or stlink, jlink Interface?

[@kayakMike1000]

I brought this in for show and tell at work... They adopted it for a piece of legacy firmware.

[@jorgeguerrerorocha8140]

Do you have any course/video playlist/certificate where i can learn to program stm32 based systems using this method?

[@thoyibbasarah3302]

I have 250pcs STM32 bluepill witch is same variant with this video (black jumper and wrong device ID). and having issue USB not recognized. Need help....

[@germanvelardez7947]

You are great man. That's all.

[@CandyHam]

Why would I do this instead of just using SWD's SWO pin via STM32Cube IDE?

[@ninjoetsu]

imo the power of openocd is that it can be used with many types of chip, and can use something more generic as your programmer such as a raspberry pi, which lets you program loads of kinds of chips without specialised hardware or software. Do whatever works for you really, i mainly use it so i don't have to buy an st link and so i can program and debug from the terminal

[@bennguyen1313]

Is there a command-line-parameter to scan the JTAG chain for devices? Any thoughts on using a GUI for debugging.. VSCode , Eclipse, or VisualGDB? For example VisualGDB supports OpenOCD, yet it doesn't support popular debuggers that use OpenOCD, like the Black Magic Pro. (Perhaps the BMP debugger is a little different as it doesn't seem to require any server software running on your computer (OpenOCD /STLink/urjtag/etc).. Instead, I think the Black Pill just appears as a remote (serial) GDB debugger.. with all the JTAG/SWD-TRACESWO support handled on the BMP itself?) Speaking of debuggers, I'm a little confused as to the difference between JTAG and SWO/SWD, and "ETM Traces". Segger has tons of different J-Link/J-Trace models.. and there's also plenty of cheap clones (EDU Mini, RealView U-Link2, etc). I have an AT ATMEL-ICE debugger, which supports CMSIS-DAP/SW/JTAG but no SWO. Perhaps this explains why ITM_SendChar doesn't work when I tried it with Keil (limited version 32KB). Does OpenOCD support the advanced streaming/tracing capability?

[@arnabbiswasalsodeep]

Jtag & swd are the same thing, except Jtag is more versatile & designed for multichip while swd removes the extra wires needed & their signalling requirements. Kind of think of spi, with more devices u need multiple chip enable lines. But if its just single device, then you can remove the chip enable signal & use few wires. Thus swd is Jtag compatible (since u can just not connect the wires from Jtag) but not vice versa (since swd doesn't generate & use the signals needed for daisy chaining Jtag)

[@s_i_m_o_n_e_n_g_e_l]

I could only find the jlink for like 500 Euros. Are they really that expensive?

[@MarkusBurrer]

The package st-link doesn't seem to exist on Ubuntu 24.04. Any suggestions?

[@MarkusBurrer]

Package name is now stlink-tools

[@cebubikebootcamp]

I can't seem to run OpenOCD, why is it so hard to use this?

[@shahinhaque95]

Do you have an stm32 openocd tutorial on the raspberry pi? f4 preferably

[@CandyHam]

STM32F4 or Raspberry Pi? Which one?

[@shahinhaque95]

@@CandyHam not too sure, this was a year ago. I now use gdb for debugging

[@timsmith2525]

Maybe you could make a video on why unix/linux developers give their products just goofy names.

[@mustafaenany9388]

where do I get the configuration file for my controller : stm32f401ccu6

[@emblink27]

This is a good demonstration for a basic understanding of the embedded system debug process. BUT IMHO it's a fucking nightmare to debug an actual project like that. Any ide GUI is much more convinient. And for the remote target, it's easier to log in to the PC with a debugger by RDP and use GUI.

[@terlumunjoseph6779]

What about non Linux users

[@Ruhgtfo]

First time heard thoughts it was about someone is keep washing his hand

[@KushalGandhi-z9p]

You are love my dear. I want to give you a hug!!

[@pingburner]

ty

[@m1geo]

Really, really good video! Thanks!

[@bob-ny6kn]

When you say "bare metal" is that AtmelStudio or are you digging into the .h files to use lowest command possible. I just saw AtmelStudio is 1 GB in size (ugh) and Arduino is in Linux's Synaptic Package Manager and only 20 MB (yeay). Thank you.

[@LowLevelTV]

Baremetal to me just means I'm using as little abstraction's as possible. Here we use libopencm3, which technically is an HAL but it doesn't add a ton of bloat middleware like Arduino or Atmel libraries.

[@bob-ny6kn]

@@LowLevelTV thank you

[@AlessioSangalli]

@@LowLevelTV or Rust 😂 ahah 😂😂

[@LowLevelTV]

@@AlessioSangalli RUST IS THE FUTURE I WILL NOT BE CONVINCED OTHERWISE🤣

[@brianwest7344]

C++ is the future and I will be laughing at all the Rust programmers sleeping in shop doorways.

[@BogdanSerban]

Nah just print everything to serial console and hope for the best. Why is all this stuff so damn complicated? I couldn't even understand what all of these do before watching this.

[@AttilaAsztalos]

Sure, just as long as you're aware that depending on where in the code is the print used, how often it is triggered, how much data formatting it needs to do and how long the message is it can easily cause absolutely unacceptable delays, on an MCU that is more often than not expected to perform hard real-time duties.

[@negvorsa]

First!!

[@LowLevelTV]

:D