Start/Stop GDB Server

[microbuilder]

It might be worth looking into the possibility of starting and stopping GDB server for basic command-line or IDE based debugging based on either Segger's free GDB Server or GDB support in OpenOCD with the STLink/V2.

Perhaps three commands could be implemented:

• --gdbstart Start running GDB server in the background so that an IDE or user can connect via Telnet
• --gdbstop Stop running GDB server in the background
• --gdb <filename> Start GBD in interactive mode from the command line (manually entering commands)

This will make certain things easier once we start integrating the boards into the Arduino IDE, and to give a low cost option to see what's going on inside the MCU.

GDB isn't very well understood, but it's quite powerful and I can make a simple tutorial to explain the basics like reading/writing registers and setting breakpoints.

Related Links

• Segger GDB Server
• Short GDB Tutorial (PDF)

[microbuilder]

This combined with Legolas should be quite flexible for advanced users to dig up some fairly useful information from the command-line in a cross-platform manner, using either a J-Link or a super cheap STLink/V2.

Given the complexity of WICED and to a lesser extent the nRF51822, it might come in handy once the boards are more widely deployed.

[microbuilder]

JLink's free debugger tool can be used for reasonably complex debugging, including setting watch points, break points, etc., so this probably isn't an issue that immediately needs to be addressed. I'll close the issue and we can reopen it later if necessary.