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

[K]GDB – a few tips and tricks

GDB is a large and powerful program with many features. We'll describe a few top-of-mind tips and tricks here that can prove useful when using GDB (and KGDB).

Setting up and using GDB scripts with CONFIG_GDB_SCRIPTS

Dating back to the 4.0 kernel, Linux provides several Python-based helper scripts – seen as additional GDB commands – to help debug the kernel (and kernel modules). Their code's within the kernel source in scripts/gdb.

Enable them by setting CONFIG_GDB_SCRIPTS=y. Once enabled, it's advisable to put the following line in your GDB startup file ~/.gdbinit:

add-auto-load-safe-path <...>/scripts/gdb/vmlinux-gdb.py

Or, simpler but more permissive, add-auto-load-safe-path /. This has GDB parse this Python script within the kernel source tree (scripts/gdb/vmlinux-gdb.py) and thus recognize the Python-based GDB helper scripts – a very useful thing! All the helper scripts are prefixed...