Debugging Issue on WROVER and Eclipse

[Alekos2313]

Hello,
I recently got a new WROVER Dev board. I use one of the examples to get started with Eclipse on windows, following the online instructions. I did all steps as described, and I can build and flash the kit both on msys32 command line and Eclipse.
Problem starts with debugging. I Use the USB embedded debugger option. I Manage to connect on debugger over the command line and step/add breakpoint/ etc just fine, again as described on the online instructions (http://esp-idf.readthedocs.io/en/latest ... er-eclipse). When I try the same instructions for windows / Eclipse, I get an error immmidiatelly, that I can't tackle. In short the error is this:

An internal error occurred during: "Launching i2s_debug".
org.eclipse.cdt.dsf.gdb.service.GdbDebugServicesFactory.<init>(Ljava/lang/String;Lorg/eclipse/debug/core/ILaunchConfiguration;)V

Note that I am not an advanced user of Eclipse, and also not a great fan, but my first interest is the coding, and I want to get fast on the development of my firmware on ESP32. I dont wish to debug the tools to do that, I just want to use them.
Consider me a noob in terms of using OpenOCD and Eclipse, who faces them as toolsl made by someone who knows how they work.
I have attached feww screenshots of commandline success and Eclipse failure if it would help anyone.

[k.ifantidis]

Hello Alekos.
Have you found out anything about this matter ?? At the moment i'm trying to install GDB Hardware Debugger which i can't find on eclipse. And probably i'm going to face your problems soon... :-/

Regards, Kostas

[Alekos2313]

Hi, long time I haven't checked all this, sorry for a late reply.
I haven't had any serious progress on this. Sometimes this procedure described in the tutorials for debugging in Eclipse, works, some times it fails. If I give it a number of tries, I usually get it working, but it is not as stable as I would want it to be. I also bought a OLIMEX OCD-JTAG, this was even worse. About the Olimex dongle, maybe its also my fault, since I am not an expert in configuring and debugging the OCD tools. But still all solutions for onboard debugging seem weak. I hope & believe they will improve this part too.

Alex

[Alekos2313]

Hello, any news on that? debugging sessions fail all time with various errors on ESP-WROVER-KIT, and now my project has come to a point where I need debugging over JTAG, otherwise I am blocked..
Please update

Alex

[Alekos2313]

I have a new set of errors attached in text file if this can assist.

[k.ifantidis]

Hey there. I've got my hands on ESP-WROVER-KIT and I've got the debugger working. I'll give you some tips!!
1. Connect the jumpers needed for JTAG below the board.
2. Check that you haven't assigned any JTAG pin in GPIO driver or anything else (happened yesterday and lost about 20minutes trying to figure it out!)
3. Firstly you run OpenOCD and secondly the x-tensa debugger. Follow the steps here "Run openOCD" and here Using Debugger and you will be fine.
Try using it in blink example at first in order to check if it works. I hope this will help you.


Regards, Kostas

[ESP_Sprite]

Code: Select all

Error: JTAG scan chain interrogation failed: all ones

FWIW: This means a physical problem in the communication between the JTAG adapter you have and the ESP32. As Kostas already said, checking your connections (as well as Vtar, if your JTAG board needs it) and seeing if your ESP32 program reconfigures the JTAG GPIOs are the first thing to do here.

[Alekos2313]

Hi,
I found out what was causing the issue with the "all ones" problem... disappointing discovery! My project uses SPI and the GPIO 12->14 are common for JTAG, so this was stopping the JTAG. Once I disconnected everything from these pins, I came back to my old situation.
The old situation is what Kostas says... It seems it's working. It also works for me but not all time. It's random if it starts well, or fails before attaching. In other words, it is not stable and not to rely on it.
I don't believe it is a serious problem with ESP32, but more likely some OCD/JTAG configuration? some profile used by the OCD driver needs fine tuning maybe. But I am not an expert on this, so I can't tell for sure.
I have used many debuggers that run over some form of JTAG or other transport, and my comparison is against my previous experience... It can get much better and reliable on ESP32 I believe.

Alex

[ESP_Sprite]

I can't say anything about the Eclipse support, but OpenOCD for me has been mostly stable. Do you also get those errors you mention when you use gdb command-line?

[Alekos2313]

Hello, I haven't really spent much time testing the command line way, but my project is a bit large so command line is not so intuitive, and afterall, the Eclipse side is just a Graphical representation of the same thing, its not a different driver really... it issues gdb commands over OCD right? So I dont see why there should be difference.