Debug support now also for EDBG-based debuggers

[felias-fogg]

Hi Hansi,

After a long look at pymcuprog and pyavrdebug, I decided to give it a try. I extended it so that it can now deal with debugWIRE MCUs. If you want to try it out, you can install the Python script from PyPI with pipx install dwgdbserver. It seems stable by now, but there are a few things to polish. The nice thing is that it runs on all platforms and seems "easily" extendable to deal with JTAG and UPDI.

Best,
Bernhard

[MCUdude]

That's really quite neat! Excellent work. I have quite limited time at the moment (we're getting a baby within a week or two), but is this something that would/could work with Arduino IDE v2?

[felias-fogg]

I have quite limited time at the moment (we're getting a baby within a week or two),

Congratulations! This will probably mean less time in front of the computer ;-). I became a grandfather a year ago and must say that this is more fun and less stressful than being a father ;-)

but is this something that would/could work with Arduino IDE v2?

Definitely. With Pyinstall you can turn the script into a binary that can be distributed as a "tool" in an Arduino package.

Have fun with your baby
Bernhard

[MCUdude]

Thank you! It's my third (and last) child, so I'll be busy for many, many years. However, I'll try my best to find time to tinker with microcontrollers and electronics in the evenings.

Feel free to create a PR or a development branch I can try. I still haven't fully migrated over to IDE v2 (I'm mostly using PlatformIO), but I see a lot of potential! The end goal would be to provide debug functionality that would "just work" on your favorite operating system.

[felias-fogg]

Hi Hans, the third! Then you are a professional dad already. We stopped at two, but the second was already much smoother. And, over time, you get back more time for yourself. In any way, it is infinitely rewarding to have kids. Something, I noticed only when we had them. My plan is to complete the script for DW targets and produce an ATTinyCore and a MiniCore package soon (since my kids are not kids anymore). I'll send you a PR after I am done. It is probably some way to go. The good thing is that I always get helpful feedback from Xedbg from Microchip when things are not straightforward. Next step would be JTAG targets, hopefully before early summer, when I will be busy with other things. UPDI targets are the ultimate goal. Yes, and the good thing is that it is all platform independent. Bloom seems to be a cool thing for Linux, but the author does not care for other platforms. Concerning Arduino IDE 2, I disliked it earlier. But meanwhile it seems stable and is again reduced to the crucial things. It is much easier to work with when you have smallish projects. And it is all out of the box (when it was in the box). PlatformIO is a bit more challenging for new users. You can, however, integrate a new debugger much easier in PlatformIO. I still have not figured out how to do that in the Arduino IDE 2. Best, Bernhard

[felias-fogg]

Just an update: The Python script dw-gdbserver runs smoothly and appears stable by now, and it was more work than I anticipated. I have not yet integrated it into Arduino IDE 2, but everything is in place for it. It also works with a mEDBG debugger on an Atmega328P XPLAINED mini. However, I guess it would not work with your microUPDI because this board caters only for UPDI, right? Meanwhile, I have all the compatible debuggers on my desk, so I have plenty of debuggers to test the script.

Best,
Bernhard

[felias-fogg]

Hi Hans,

I am done for now, I believe.

Cheers,
Bernhard

[felias-fogg]

Puh, this was more heavy work than I thought before. Juggling five different (physical and virtual) platforms and ensuring that the correct version shows up on GitHub was not helped by a strange interaction between the Python installer and Poetry. But now it looks good, and I verified that the correct version shows up on all platforms when installing the board manager file.

Concerning PlatformIO: This works as well. You have to place the dw-gdbserver executable somewhere, and then you need to write a platformio.ini file as described in the readme file. You probably have to replace avr-gdb in the PlatformIO toolchain as well.

BTW: I added the binaries for the different platforms as assets on the dw-gdbserver GitHub page.

Wish you happy Eastern!

[MCUdude]

Thanks for all your help Bernhard! I'll play around with the new debug functionality, and discuss with the PlatformIO developers to see if this is something that could be integrated into PlatformIO itself.

BTW how are JTAG support looking so far? That's the last piece of the puzzle before we have full support for all "classic" AVRs.

[MCUdude]

Sorry to bother you again @felias-fogg, but I've stumbled across an installation-related issue.
I have a Windows computer I don't use all that much, and It's running Arduino IDE 1.8.19. When trying to install the latest MiniCore v3.1.0 I'm getting the following error:

It turns out that the underlying Java runtime engine is 32-bit. I imagine that lots of people have an IDE version installed that uses an underlying Java runtime engine that's 32-bit. Is it possible to build dw-tools for 32-bit systems as well?

[felias-fogg]

And I thought we were past the time of 32-bit OSs ;-). So in this case, it's the Java-Engine that forces to use 32-bit tools. Sigh.

I am not sure whether it is worth the effort producing 32-bit binaries since you cannot make use of the dw-tools in Arduino IDE 1 in any case. So maybe using an empty folder would be enough? I can, of course, also generate a 32-bit version with some effort, but I do not see the use case. Even if you only want to debug using the CLI, the IDE 1 will not produce the right object files (-Og cannot be specified). So, I guess, I will produce a dummy 32-bit version, which will output an error message when started. Does that sound reasonable?

[MCUdude]

And I thought we were past the time of 32-bit OSs ;-)

Yes, me too.

I'm fine with a dummy as long as it doesn't cause any issues when used with IDE 2.0

[felias-fogg]

As far as I understood the "Package index json specification", the 64-bit version is chosen if possible. So, a dummy 32-bit package should not interfere with IDE 2 since IDE 2 is only available as a 64-bit system.

However, I should also include 32-bit Linux Intel and Linux ARM dummy tools, because you can install Arduino CLI packages on such platforms.

[felias-fogg]

Thanks for all your help Bernhard! I'll play around with the new debug functionality, and discuss with the PlatformIO developers to see if this is something that could be integrated into PlatformIO itself.

BTW how are JTAG support looking so far? That's the last piece of the puzzle before we have full support for all "classic" AVRs.

I start to go on a number of trips starting on May 8 (mostly bicycle), returning July 10. And in between, I have only a few days. So, I can start to work on JTAG only mid-July.