Configure Eclipse

How to install and configure Eclipse properly in order to debug with OpenOCD.

This tutorial will go over how to do in-circuit debugging with OpenOCD via JTAG.

Page 2 of 3.

We'll need to set up our project and several tools in Eclipse to streamline our debugging experience. First, open up the version of Eclipse that you just installed.

New Project

We need to set up a new project in Eclipse to debug our program. Follow the steps in the Eclipse how-to to set up your project. This should get you to a point where you can compile new firmware versions.

External Tools

The way that our debugging will generally work is:

Build new code that we want to test
Upload our newly compiled code to the board
Start the OpenOCD daemon - this will wait for connections from a GDB debug session running in Eclipse, and send those debug messages to the board via our ARM-USB-OCD JTAG device.
Start our debug session in Eclipse and step around through the code.

Eclipse provides a nice way for us to fire up these processes at the click of a button, but of course there's a little setup involved. We're already set up to build new code, so we'll move on to uploading our new code to the board.

Upload New Code via ARM-USB-OCD

In your project, click the little arrow on the right-hand side of the External Tools icon in the menu bar, and select External Tools...

Create a New Configuration, and name it whatever you like. I've chosen OpenOCD - upload to distinguish it from the OpenOCD - debug configuration that we'll create in just a moment.
In Location, specify the path to your openocd tool
In Working Directory, specify the path to the directory with the OpenOCD scripts
In Arguments, specify that OpenOCD should use the makeController-uploadFirmware.cfg configuration script
Click the Common tab, and check the box in Display in Favorites Menu to add this configuration to the menu bar for easy access
Click Close

Your external tool configuration should look something like the image below:

The OpenOCD - upload tool configuration

Fire Up the OpenOCD Daemon

Open the External Tools menu item again
Create a New Configuration, and name it whatever you like. I've chosen OpenOCD - debug.
In Location, specify the path to your openocd tool
In Working Directory, specify the path to the directory with the OpenOCD scripts
In Arguments, specify that OpenOCD should use the makeController-debug.cfg configuration script
Click the Common tab, and check the box in Display in Favorites Menu to add this configuration to the menu bar for easy access
Click Close

Your external tool configuration should look something like the image below:

The OpenOCD - debug configuration

If you want to test out the debugger, click the External Tools icon in the menu bar and select OpenOCD - debug. You should get some output in the Console that looks like:

Info:    openocd.c:82 main(): Open On-Chip Debugger (2006-10-12 18:00 CEST)
Warning: arm7_9_common.c:683 arm7_9_assert_reset(): srst resets test logic, too

The OpenOCD daemon is now sitting there waiting for a debug session to start up.

Set Up the Debug Session

To set this up, click on the little arrow next to the bug icon in the menu bar, and select Debug...

Create a new Embedded debug (Native) configuration, and name it whatever you like. I've simply chosen heavy.
In Project, click Browse and select your current project
In C/C++ Application, click Search Project... and select the heavy.elf file. You need to have already built the project once in order to create heavy.elf.

The main tab should look like:

The Debug Main tab

Click the Debugger tab
Leave the Stop on startup checkbox checked
In GDB debugger, select the YAGARTO arm-elf-gdb executable
Clear out the GDB command file field

The debugger tab should look like:

The Debugger tab

Click the Commands tab
Copy and paste the following commands into the Commands text field:

target remote localhost:3333
monitor reset
monitor wait 500
monitor soft_reset_halt
monitor arm7_9 force_hw_bkpts enable

The commands tab should look like:

The Commands tab

Finally, select the Common tab, and check the Debug checkbox within Display in favorites menu

We're all set.

Next: Debugging

Previous: Overview

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