This tutorial will show you how to use the Lauterbach TRACE32 GDB front-end debugger to debug your Arduino boards' applications via GDB on a serial interface. It also explains how to obtain a free license for a fully functional version of TRACE32 using your board's serial number.
To use the TRACE32 GDB Front End debugger, you will need one of the following boards:
In this tutorial, you will learn how to upload an application that contains an MRI (Monitor for Remote Inspection) to your Arduino boards. This is a GDB-compatible serial monitor, which is included both in the ThreadDebug sketch in the IDE Examples and in all the examples available inside the TRACE32 /demo directory.
In the next steps, the double-tilde (~~) is used as a placeholder for the directory where you unzipped the TRACE32 software.
In order to download the TRACE32 debugger, open the Lauterbach download page in your browser. Download the zip file named Debugger for GDB target (Arduino Pro).
Extract the zip file to a directory of your choice. On Windows systems, please avoid C:\T32, because this is the default installation directory for the full TRACE32 distribution.
Without a valid license, the TRACE32 debugger only works for a few minutes in demo mode. To avoid this limitation, Lauterbach may generate a free license based on the serial number of your board. The license will be valid for one year and can easily be renewed for free after this expiration using the same procedure.
In order to obtain a new license, you need to first get the serial number of your board. There are two alternative ways to do so:
For Portenta H7 and Nicla Vision only: if you only see a 16-character (64-bit) long serial number, then you need to update your Arduino IDE and your boards' core from the Boards Manager in the IDE. Details on how to do so can be found on the Arduino website. In addition, make sure your board has the latest bootloader installed.
Note: Newer TRACE32 software version should automatically detect and show the board serial number, at the first connection to the target.
At this point, you are ready to register at the Lauterbach registration page:
Copy & paste your board's serial number and enter your name and e-mail address to get your new license.
When you receive the email containing your license key, follow the instructions provided at the end of the message:
To use the debugger, launch the appropriate executable for your host operating system. The executables can be found in the corresponding sub-directory for your operating system:
~~/bin/windows
for 32-bit Windows hosts~~/bin/windows64
for 64-bit Windows hosts~~/bin/linux
for 32-bit Linux hosts~~/bin/linux64
for 64-bit Linux hosts.To simplify the access, we suggest creating a link to the corresponding executable file on your desktop:
for Windows, this is t32marm.exe
for Linux, this is t32marm-qt
On Windows systems, the TRACE32 start-up script will automatically search for the right COM port attached to the board.
On Linux systems, you will need to edit the
system-settings.cmm
file to manually add the serial port your board is connected to. This is a text file and can be opened with your favorite text editor. Edit the line that defines &GDBPORT to refer to the serial port, for example: &GDBPORT="/dev/ttyACM0"
. This must be done before you start the TRACE32 software. After changing the port, you can start the TRACE32 debugger or re-start it in case it was open while you performed the changes.The manual port setting is also useful for Windows systems when you connect multiple boards simultaneously and you would like to select a specific board to be used by TRACE32 for debugging. The automatic port selection is disabled when a &GDBPORT definition is found in
.system-settings.cmm
A number of pre-built demo programs are available in the tool. They can be accessed from the "Arduino Projects" menu. The following instructions relate to the T32ThreadDebug example. However, other examples follow a similar pattern.
The demo directory already includes the symbolic file (.elf) for debugging and the binary file (.bin) for Flash programming.
Select "T32ThreadDebug" from the "Portenta H7 Projects" menu and you will be presented with a dialog called "Elf File Selection". This is where the TRACE32 initial environment can be configured.
In this dialog, you can select which variant of the Arduino IDE you would like to use to source ELF files or if you want to use the current directory. To follow this tutorial, please select "current dir".
The list on the right of the "Options" selection should then become populated with a number of available ELF files ready for downloading and debugging. Select the one you are interested into with a double click. In this tutorial, "T32ThreadDebug.ino.elf" has been selected. This will also show file attributes such as date, time and size.
To select an ELF file from a custom directory, click the "File" button underneath the "User's choice" field and browse for the desired ELF file. You can decide to change the behavior of this script the next time it is executed.
If the application has already been programmed on the Flash, for instance via the Arduino IDE or a previous TRACE32 session, select "Load debug symbols (program is already in Flash)" to prevent an unnecessary erase and write cycle of the on-chip Flash memory.
If the application has changed or does not match the contents of the Flash, then select "Flash program and load debug symbols".
Click the "OK" button to confirm all of your choices and start the session.
If the Flash is being programmed, TRACE32 will prompt you to double-click the reset button on the board to enable the bootloader mode. The built-in green LED of the board will fade in and out when the board will be in bootloader mode. Click the "OK" button to proceed. Diagnostic messages will be displayed in the TRACE32 AREA window whilst the erasing and programming take place.
The script will then be uploaded to the board and cause TRACE32 to open some debug windows. When everything is ready, you should see the Program Counter halted at the beginning of the setup() function. You may now use the arrow buttons in the toolbar to step through the code and inspect the variables, registers, call stack etc.
In case of errors, please check the physical connection to the board, check if your host PC has detected the board's serial port and if this is the port configured in TRACE32. Reset the board and retry.
Take a look at the
readme.txt
file inside the demo directory for further information about the demo.The provided demos or any other project of your choice can be edited, compiled, and flashed with the Arduino IDE. You can open for example the
T32ThreadDebug.ino
file in the Arduino IDE, build and flash it. Flashing is also possible with TRACE32 tool.IMPORTANT: If you choose to program the Flash within the Arduino IDE, do not close the IDE after programming; leave it open. This is very important because, if you close the IDE, it cleans up the temporary build directory which includes the ELF file.
The demo directory contains a startup script that will copy the ELF file and the binary file in the current working directory. After the startup script is run, you can safely close the Arduino IDE if you do not need it anymore.
When you are done with flashing your application to the board, you can switch back to TRACE32. Select the type of Arduino IDE. If an ELF file is found, double-click to select it, then select "Load debug symbols (program is already in flash)" and click "OK".
You may also create a custom startup script for your own application. A minimal startup script is shown below. Copy it into a text file and save it with a file extension ".cmm". To execute it, call the menu command "File-->Run Script..." from the TRACE32 GUI.
1SYStem.Down2SYStem.CPU PortentaH7-CM7 ; or SYStem.CPU NICLAVISION-CM73SYStem.PORT <serial_port> ; e.g. COM8 (Windows) or /dev/ttyUSB0 (Linux)4SYStem.Option MMUSPACES ON5Break.CONFIG.METHOD.Program Onchip6
7SYStem.Mode Attach8
9Data.LOAD.Elf * /NoCODE10
11TASK.CONFIG ~~/demo/arm/kernel/rtxarm/v5/rtx.t3212MENU.ReProgram ~~/demo/arm/kernel/rtxarm/v5/rtx.men13
14List.auto15ENDDO
You can also copy the script
start.cmm
from the T32ThreadDebug demo directory to your working directory. For an application using the Serial Monitor, it is necessary to copy both start.cmm
and term.cmm
from the T32ThreadDebugPrint demo directory.For each demo the corresponding
start.cmm
script comes with a predefined window layout. For your own layout, manually open and arrange the windows as you prefer, then save this window layout using the "Store Windows..." command in the Window menu. Save the file as win.cmm
. It will be automatically found and used the next time you start a debugging session.In this tutorial, you learned how to acquire a free version of the TRACE32 GDB Front End debugger, fully licensed for your Arduino board for one year. You learned how to start the debugger and debug some ready-to-run demos. Furthermore, you learned how to debug an application compiled with the classic Arduino IDE.
Lauterbach also provides hardware-based debug & trace tools. To learn more about them please visit:
In case the debugger encounters any issues while connecting to the Portenta, try the following:
On Ubuntu Linux, for example, you can install the Qt5 libraries using apt-get:
sudo apt-get install qt5-default
The user running the TRACE32 executable on Linux must have permission to access serial devices. For example, in Ubuntu, a temporary permission can be set as follows:
sudo chown :username /dev/devicename
You can also set permanent permission by adding the user to the "dialout" group. For example, in Ubuntu:
sudo adduser username dialout
Alternatively, you can run the TRACE32 executable with root permissions.