Cannot run builtin debugger on esp32-s3 board

Advanced Solutions Debugging
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1

Hello guys,

I cannot manage to run debugger on the microcontroller I’m using. The microcontroller is based on esp32-s3, in particular it is this one: GitHub - Xinyuan-LilyGO/T-RGB. I start to think that maybe its not even possible on that particular board.

I’m using VSCode. I followed this guide to install the right drivers for USB to access the JTAG interface: Configure ESP32-S3 Built-in JTAG Interface - ESP32-S3 - — ESP-IDF Programming Guide latest documentation. It landed on COM6 and it is also the port for uploading. It is called “USB JTAG/serial debug unit (Interface 0)”. Then I updated the platformio.ini with this line:
debug_tool = esp-builtin
Then when running “PIO Debug” it fails with the following messages:

Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND
Error: esp_usb_jtag: could not find or open device!

This looks like the access through USB port is not working, so I added to configuration file this line:
debug_port = COM6
It looked more promissing, as after the build (before upload) it taken some time before it responded. However, after about a minute it ended with this error message:

PlatformIO: debug_tool = esp-builtin
PlatformIO: Initializing remote target...
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
warning: unrecognized item "timeout" in "qSupported" response
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
.pioinit:11: Error in sourced command file:
Remote replied unexpectedly to 'vMustReplyEmpty': timeout

Do you guys see some red flag what I can be doing wrong? Or do you see why the builtin debugger in this case cannot work in principle?

2

I haven’t tried it myself yet, but have you read this post and followed the instructions in it?

3

yes it works, VSCode/Platformio sometimes is a litle bit buggy, but most of times the debugger works well.

4

Thank you (and Eduardo) for trying to help :+1:
The step by step guideline is pretty good. I did follow it, but ended at step 4.
I see something strange locally which very well can be behind the whole problem. When setting the ports with Zadig tool, I end up with this:

ddport
ddport907×617 89.7 KB

The “USB-JTAG/serial debug unit(Interface 0)” on COM6 seems to be correct, exactly as described in the guideline. But according to the guideline I should see something like “USB-Enhanced-SERIAL CH323” on a different COM. And this is what I don’t see, even though I completed the install with Zadig on “interface 2” and target “WinUSB” before.
So consequently I had to use the same COM for both upload and monitor port like this:

debug_tool = esp-builtin
upload_port = COM6
monitor_port = COM6
debug_init_break = break setup
build_type = debug

… but that probably does not make much sense. It ended up with the usual:

Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND
Error: esp_usb_jtag: could not find or open device!
6

Not near my computer but iirc, you also need to do some zadig setup for serial port 0.

7

Thank you for the answer, Zapta! When you say serial port 0, you mean UART0, right? I do use Zadig tool (I followed the above reference) - from what I understand it can map the UART port to COM. But while in the reference Eduardo managed to map 2 COM ports, I managed only one - I’m missing the “USB-Enhanced-SERIAL CH323”.

8

@vladimir.nejedly

The errors you listed are what I get before I do the zadig setting, or when the zadiq setting is lost for some reason.

Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND

Here is what I see on my computer (after zagid setting). Be careful with the zadig settings because I don’t know of a simple way to undo them. I use Acronis Try & Decide for risky stuff.

Windows device manager, before I plug in the debugger:
image

Windows device manager, after I plug in the debugger (only one port is added):
image

And I also see this:
image

In Zadig, interface 0 looks like this:
image

And interface 1 looks like this:
image

This is my platformio.ini. It uses the standard (non debugger related) USB/Serial port to run in release mode and the debugger to run in debug mode.

[env:esp32dev]
platform = espressif32@6.1.0
board = esp32dev
framework = espidf
monitor_speed = 115200
debug_tool=esp-prog

You may find more info in these links (which I bookmarked in my platformio.ini)

9

Finally got the debugger working! You were right, Zapta, the problem was related to usb driver and that it could be resolved by Zadig tool.
I found answer to my particular problem in this forum: libusb_get_string_descriptor_ascii() returns always LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_FOUND -- libusb0.sys only · Issue #761 · libusb/libusb · GitHub
And the problem was that for the debugging JTAG interface, that is “Interface 2” I was using “libusb0” driver. When starting to use “libusbK”, the debugger started to work. This was the relevant text from the linked forum:
{{
Take note it is not recommended to use libusb0.sys with libusb Windows. It is mentioned in the wiki.
Windows · libusb/libusb Wiki · GitHub
}}
Well, that was hard… :wink: