Need some help setting up a debugging environment (in VSCode)

[CaptainJack42]

Hey everyone,

i'm currently in the process of trying out rust on an esp32 (specifically the ESP32-S2-Saola-1R) and found this book to be a great entry point.

However i'm having some trouble setting up a debugging environment. I'm using an ESP-PROG as JTAG adapter, connected to the pins mentioned in the Hardware Setup section of the book.

I have the cortex-debug extension installed and also installed esp-idf (from the AUR package).

I created a .vscode/launch.json file from the template file linked to in the book and adjusted the parameters mentioned in the book. The file looks like this:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            // more info at: https://github.com/Marus/cortex-debug/blob/master/package.json
            "name": "Attach",
            "type": "cortex-debug",
            "request": "attach", // attach instead of launch, because otherwise flash write is attempted, but fails
            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "executable": "target/xtensa-esp32s2-espidf/debug/test-project",
            "servertype": "openocd",
            "interface": "jtag",
            "svdFile": "/home/<my_user>/esp32/svd/svd/esp32s2.svd",
            "toolchainPrefix": "xtensa-esp32-elf",
            "armToolchainPath": "/home/<my_user>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/xtensa-esp32-elf/bin/",
            "openOCDPreConfigLaunchCommands": [
                "set ESP_RTOS none"
            ],
            "serverpath": "/usr/bin/openocd-esp32openocd",
            "configFiles": [
                "board/esp32s2-kaluga-1.cfg"
            ],
            "overrideAttachCommands": [
                "set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit 2",
                "mon halt",
                "flushregs"
            ],
            "overrideRestartCommands": [
                "mon reset halt",
                "flushregs",
                "c",
            ]
        },
    ]
}

I have also tried the xtensa-esp32s2-elf toolchain with the same result, in that case the entries "toolchainPrefix" and armToolchainPath" look like this:

            "toolchainPrefix": "xtensa-esp32s2-elf",
            "armToolchainPath": "/home/janek/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/",

However nothing is happening, when i launch the configuration it loads for a while and than just exits again, this is the output from the VSCode Debug Console:

Cortex-Debug: VSCode debugger extension version 1.12.0 git(d7a405a). Usage info: https://github.com/Marus/cortex-debug#usage
Reading symbols from /home/<my_user>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-objdump --syms -C -h -w /home/<my_user>/Projekte/personal/esp-rs/test-project/target/xtensa-esp32s2-espidf/debug/test-project
Reading symbols from /home/<my_user>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-nm --defined-only -S -l -C -p /home/<my_user>/Projekte/personal/esp-rs/test-project/target/xtensa-esp32s2-espidf/debug/test-project
Launching GDB: /home/<my_user>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/esp-2022r1-11.2.0/xtensa-esp32s2-elf/bin/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-gdb -q --interpreter=mi2

Any help with this would be greatly apreciated.

Cheers

[CaptainJack42]

Update: I'm stupid. Seems like the ESP32-S2 uses different JTAG pins (see here). After wiring it correctly i can properly attach to a debugging session.

However i still have to figure out how to properly flash the chip and than attach the debugging session, but it seems like this should be doable with openocd (see here)

[CaptainJack42]

Or is the desired workflow to have two USB cables (1 for flashing and monitor directly to the development board and 1 for debugging to the ESP-Prog)?

[SergioGasquez]

Yes, you need to have two USB cables!

[CaptainJack42]

Alright thanks a lot for the answer! In that case i can stop trying to figure out how this works and will just use 2 cables and create a task that does both consecutively.