Chapter 1: A General Introduction to Debugging Software
Hello there! Welcome on this journey of learning how to go about debugging a really sophisticated, large, and complex piece of software that's proven absolutely critical to big businesses as well as tiny embedded systems and everything in between – the Linux kernel.
Let's begin this very first chapter, and our journey of kernel debugging, by first understanding a little more about what a bug really is, and the origins and myths of the term debugging. Next, a glimpse at some actual real-world software bugs will (hopefully) provide the required inspiration and motivation (to firstly avoid bugs and then to find and fix bugs, of course). You will be guided on how to set up an appropriate workspace to work on a custom kernel and debug issues, including setting up a full-fledged debug kernel. We'll wrap up with some useful tips on debugging.
In this chapter, we're going to cover the following main topics:
- Software debugging – what it is, origins, and myths
- Software bugs – a few actual cases
- Setting up the workspace
- Debugging – a few quick tips
