topic Re: Debugger disconnects after code download in Kinetis Design Studio

Debugger disconnects after code download

bitjockey — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:36:18 GMT

Hello,

I am using a KE06 freedom board an was compiling, downloading, and debugging with no problems. Yesterday when I had compiled and downloading software the PE debugger disconnects and does not end up at the main() breakpoint. I have taken a snapshot of the debug screen when this happens. I see that the error is "source not found 0x1ba8", if I look in the map file that address corresponds to thumb startup code (see snippet below), why would it not be able to find that? Isn't that automatically generated? I am using processor expert to generate the low level stuff....

.text.__thumb_startup

0x00001ba8 0x48 ./Project_Settings/Startup_Code/startup.o

0x00001ba8 __thumb_startup

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brian

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:54:20 GMT

Few ideas:

- does your application change/remap the debug pins? If your application cuts of the debug pins, then the debugger will loose connection.

Check if you have not used debug/SWD pins for your application.

- don't run to main(). Instead, set a breakpoint for your startup code:

I assume that you will be able to step through your startup code, and then you should be able to see what is causing the problem.

- check the various console output and log for debugging:

There might be a hint in it what is causing this.

I hope this helps,

Erich

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

bitjockey — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 15:55:35 GMT

Erich,

Thanks for the quick reply, I didn't reconfigure any pins. I took your advice and entered the _thumb_startup in my debug startup menu. Inadvertently forgot the second underscore at the beginning and when I started the debugger it operated as normal breakpointing at 'main'. Went back in and entered main in my debug startup breakpoint and it still works?!?! I looked to me that the debugger was not pointing to where the _thumb_startup code should be, or the startup code did not compile correctly or output into the elf file correctly....I will keep an eye on it, if it happens again I will try to isolate what is going on.

Brian

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 20:55:21 GMT

I was about to ask a similar question, I'm suddenly experiencing the same problem. I'm using MQX Lite. What's strange is if I comment out a function call in one line in one of my MQX tasks, it works. This line previously worked, however, and I haven't modified the function being called. What's also peculiar is if I comment the body of the function out so it does nothing, it still has problems. I can't seem to change the startup point to __thumb_startup, either. I just get the message saying "No source available for 0x410", which appears to be __boot. If I try to change the startup to __boot, it works IF I don't have that line enabled, otherwise it says "__boot" is not defined. Very strange.

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 05:47:39 GMT

It looks like the device made a reset or a hard fault. There can be many reasons for this, like accessing illegal instructions, stack overflow,.... or that the watchdog triggered (not sure if this is enabled).

Do you have the hard fault handler enabled so you know if this is not your problem?

After you get that 'no source available', try to do an assembly single step. GDB loads the PC from the reset vector (you should see it in the registers view), but sometimes does find the source for it. Doing a step ensures that everything is updated.

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 12:54:57 GMT

Thanks Erich, but I can't single step because the debugger disconnects before it even starts to debug. I have checked the hard fault handler box, but it makes no difference. I'm not using the watchdog timer. I'm just scratching my head because it dies without even entering main(), so it's hard to tell what's happening. If it is overflowing the stack, how do I tell?

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:13:17 GMT

could you post your console logs of the debugger?

What about using another board?

Power supply?

USB cable to the probe?

I had once a half-dead debug cable which had kind of same symptoms, so do you have a spare one?

Erich

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

DavidS — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:44:41 GMT

Hi David,

Is this on the FRDM-KL25Z board or your own design?

Other suggestions to add to Erich's for your own design:

Please check that the NMI pin is disabled and the NMI pin has a pull-up.

RESET has strong pull-up.

Is code trying to initialize RTC and not RTC clock present?

Is debugger firmware updated? What debugger hardware are you using?

Regards,

David

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:13:23 GMT

I don't think it's a USB cable problem, I can comment out one line and it works fine. The problem seems to be related to a structure defined in ROM. If I even declare a pointer to point to it, it has this problem. I have tried two different FRDM-KE06Z boards. The board I was developing on has been modified with an external 48 MHz oscillator and a SPI eeprom attached to the SPI0 signals, but works fine with other applications. I already found out about the NMI pin when I discovered it was shared with the SPI signal, so it is disabled now. I have been using a P&E Multilink Universal FX debugger. I tried another FRDM-KE06 board, new out of the box, and used the OpenSDA interface through a different USB cable, but it does exactly the same thing. If I comment out the line, it starts debugging. It occurred to me, is there a code size limit I've reached that limits debugging? The line of code in question worked previously, but I've been porting code into other modules. Here's the GDB log:

P&E GDB Server, Version 2.02.00.01

Loading library C:\Freescale\KDS_1.0.1\eclipse\plugins\com.pemicro.debug.gdbjtag.pne_1.0.4.201404181439\win32\gdi\unit_ngs_arm_internal.dll ... Done.

Command line arguments: -device=KE06Z128M4 -startserver -serverport=7224 -interface=OPENSDA -port=USB1 -speed=5000 -USE_CYCLONEPRO_RELAYS=0 -FORCE_MASS_ERASE=0

Device selected is ke06z128m4

User Specified Hardware Selection : Interface=OPENSDA and Port=USB1

Connecting to target.

OpenSDA detected - Flash Version 1.14

Device is KE06Z128M4.

Mode is In-Circuit Debug.

'Kinetis' is a registered trademark of Freescale.

(C)opyright 2012, P&E Microcomputer Systems, Inc. (www.pemicro.com)

API version is 101

Server running on 127.0.0.1:7224

Connection from "127.0.0.1" via 127.0.0.1

Command Line :C:\Freescale\KDS_1.0.1\eclipse\plugins\com.pemicro.debug.gdbjtag.pne_1.0.4.201404181439\win32\pegdbserver_console -device=KE06Z128M4 -startserver -serverport=7224 -interface=OPENSDA -port=USB1 -speed=5000 -USE_CYCLONEPRO_RELAYS=0 -FORCE_MAS

CMD>RE

Initializing.

Target has been RESET and is active.

CMD>CM C:\Freescale\KDS_1.0.1\eclipse\plugins\com.pemicro.debug.gdbjtag.pne_1.0.4.201404181439\win32\gdi\P&E\ke06z128m4_pflash_pipeline.arp

Initializing.

Initialized.

;version 1.02, 02/07/2014, Copyright P&E Microcomputer Systems, www.pemicro.com [ke_128k_pflash_ftmre_m0]

;device freescale, ke06z128m4, desc=pflash_pipeline

;begin_cs device=$00000000, length=$00020000, ram=$20000000

Loading programming algorithm ...

Done.

CMD>EM

Erasing.

Module has been erased.

Initializing.

Initialized.

;version 1.02, 02/07/2014, Copyright P&E Microcomputer Systems, www.pemicro.com [ke_128k_pflash_ftmre_m0]

;device freescale, ke06z128m4, desc=pflash_pipeline

;begin_cs device=$00000000, length=$00020000, ram=$20000000

Loading programming algorithm ...

Done.

CMD>PM

Programming.

Processing Object File Data ...

Programmed.

CMD>VC

Verifying object file CRC-16 to device ranges ...

block 00000000-000000BF ...

Ok.

block 00000400-0000A7C3 ...

Ok.

Checksum Verification Successful. (Cumulative CRC-16=$2F55)

CMD>RE

Initializing.

Target has been RESET and is active.

Disconnected from "127.0.0.1" via 127.0.0.1

CTRL-C Pressed. Terminating Gracefully...

Target Disconnected.

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:23:26 GMT

No, that's not a code size limit. If you would reach that, it will not download and let you know.

About that pointer to that ROM location: is that a special area? It looks if you have that pointer, that memory gets refrenced (and linked).

And then it gets downloaded/flashed to that area. It looks to me that this causes something bad with the processor somehow.

It could be the P&E Multilink? Try if the same happens if you use the OpenSDA. If yes, you might try it with the Segger J-Link firmware (just to make sure it is not a P&E issue):

Freedom Board with Segger OpenSDA Debug Firmware | MCU on Eclipse

Erich

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 15:53:01 GMT

There shouldn't be anything special about that area, it just has const qualifiers that place it in ROM, which I've confirmed in the linker map. I haven't defined any specific linker sections. As I've already said, it does exactly the same thing using OpenSDA. Now things have a new wrinkle. I had disabled some lines while troubleshooting this. Now that I've re-enabled them, this problem has shifted to another line, a call to a function which contains _int_install_isr(). If I comment that line, it starts debugging, and with it enabIed it refuses to start. Again, it does this on two different boards, using both OpenSDA and the Multilink. The only other quirk I noticed is that KDS is complaining about not being able to find a source file, which has the function in question. The source file does exist, and I can open it from within KDS, so I'm not sure why the console is now reporting "No source file".

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:01:46 GMT

Okay! KDS does seem to be temperamental. On a whim, I tried figuring out this error with the source file was about. So, I copied it off, deleted it from the project, added a new source file with the same name, then copied over the old one. Now, not only is the source file error message gone, but I can re-enable all the source lines and the debugger runs. I can even make that pointer to the ROM structure again, and it's still good. Crazy... I'd log more bug reports about the strange things I've seen in KDS, like occasionally not being able to build at all because it says it can't write to temp files, but these things are so random I can't reproduce them. Thanks for your assistance, Erich. My apologies to the OP as well, I didn't mean to hijack your thread :smileysilly:.

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:20:27 GMT

Hi David,

well, the important thing is that you are up and running again. Still it concerns me, because clearly things should not be that way. Maybe somehow your object file got corrupted? You can do a complete re-build with Project > Clean and then build, or simply delete the 'Debug' (or whatever name it has) output folder.

I know that I had once an issue that some files of my project were compiled for M4, but the rest for M0+: all kind of strange things happened when I tried to run that code in the Cortex M0+ :-(

Erich

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

davidsherman — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:38:41 GMT

Thanks Erich, I tried using the "clean" option and rebuilding, but it had no effect on the issue I was seeing. The only thing I'm leaning toward is it having files edited outside of KDS. I had the map file and the suspect source file open in an outside text editor, and I wonder if that was causing problems.

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:42:24 GMT

Having the source file open should not matter at all. And if the file has been touched outside the IDE, Eclipse is pretty good to detect that. Where I had a problem in the past was that GDB was running as a zombie process (not terminated), and it kept the .elf file open. Rebuilding the files did not help, and the linker complained about the .elf file not accessible. Killing the gdb excecuable from the Windows task manager solved that problem :-)

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

DavidLundquist — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 19:05:54 GMT

Interestingly I've just run into the same exact issue. My GDB Log is identical to what was posted earlier by David Sherman. Using the PE Micro Multilink Universal.

I had been making some very minor incremental code changes and this problem popped up. Backing them out doesn't seem to get me back to a working config.

Confirmed that none of my GPIO configs are stepping on the SWD lines. NMI is not enabled.

Anyone else seeing this have any advice beyond what David Sherman did to "reload" his

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

BlackNight — Wed, 27 Aug 2014 19:33:26 GMT

Does it happen as well if you download a simple/new project wizard created project?

Erich

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

roreith — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 21:53:49 GMT

I think I just cured the same problem by doing Remove All breakpoints.

I haven't had a chance to reproduce the issue and test this fix, but I had already tried fiddling with the USB connection and P&E USB Multilink / OSBDM/OSJTAG setup in the debug configuration, restarting Kinetis Design Studio, restarting the PC, etc.

I have had gdb (arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe) keep running in the background sometimes (if this happens, perhaps try using the red square "Terminate" button on the console window), but that is not what was causing this disconnect-after-download issue. It makes sense to me that a badly-placed breakpoint could upset the CPU following reset. Hopefully some other users can shed more light on this?

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

claybarclay — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 08:20:56 GMT

Ro Reith, You are my hero, I did everything for the same problem (hours lost) then found your post about removing all break points and bang! I am off an running again!

thanks much:smileyhappy:

BTW I am using KDS 1.1.1 on a K60DN512Z no OS

Re: Debugger disconnects after code download

nickheppermann — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 20:29:07 GMT

I too have just seen similar behavior to Ro Reith and Clay Barclay. I am using PE Micro USB Universal Multilink to debug my firmware and it seems to work for a few hours and then just stop working, failing in the same manner as the original poster described. Hopefully this is the only fix that is needed.