You're reading from Linux Kernel Debugging Leverage proven tools and advanced techniques to effectively debug Linux kernels and kernel modules

Product type Paperback

Published in Aug 2022

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781801075039

Length 638 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Tools

Linux

Concepts

System Administration

Author (1):

Kaiwan N. Billimoria

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Table of Contents (17) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: A General Introduction and Approaches to Kernel Debugging

2. Chapter 1: A General Introduction to Debugging Software FREE CHAPTER

3. Chapter 2: Approaches to Kernel Debugging

4. Part 2: Kernel and Driver Debugging Tools and Techniques

5. Chapter 3: Debug via Instrumentation – printk and Friends

6. Chapter 4: Debug via Instrumentation – Kprobes

7. Chapter 5: Debugging Kernel Memory Issues – Part 1

8. Chapter 6: Debugging Kernel Memory Issues – Part 2

9. Chapter 7: Oops! Interpreting the Kernel Bug Diagnostic

10. Chapter 8: Lock Debugging

11. Part 3: Additional Kernel Debugging Tools and Techniques

12. Chapter 9: Tracing the Kernel Flow

13. Chapter 10: Kernel Panic, Lockups, and Hangs

14. Chapter 11: Using Kernel GDB (KGDB)

15. Chapter 12: A Few More Kernel Debugging Approaches

16. Other Books You May Enjoy

Conceptually understanding how KGDB works

KGDB is a source-level debugger, allowing you to debug kernel (and module) code at the level of the C source file(s)!

Hang on a moment though. In order for an application process such as GDB to debug the kernel, it will need to halt the kernel's execution upon it hitting a breakpoint and while single-stepping code paths within the kernel. How is that possible? What will run the GDB process (and the rest of the system) then?

The reality is that GDB, supporting a client-server architecture, is used with two machines: one, a host system where the client GDB program runs (the one we're used to working with); the other, the target system, where the GDB server component is embedded into the kernel itself! (Unlike typical client/server apps, the GDB server component is the smaller of the two, and the GDB client is the relatively large one – the regular GDB program you're used to using.)

Figure 11...