ESP32 - no debug symbols --> no variables/watches/ etc

Advanced Solutions Debugging
1

after several trials no more ideas …
Simple Blink project would try to debug (ESP-Prog):
Build in debug mode, Platformio also connect to ESP-Prog.
but NO SYMBOLS !!!

Terminal says:

Processing esp32-debug (platform: espressif32; framework: arduino; board: az-delivery-devkit-v4)
Verbose mode can be enabled via `-v, --verbose` option
CONFIGURATION: https://docs.platformio.org/page/boards/espressif32/az-delivery-devkit-v4.html
PLATFORM: Espressif 32 (3.2.0) > AZ-Delivery ESP-32 Dev Kit C V4
HARDWARE: ESP32 240MHz, 520KB RAM, 16MB Flash
DEBUG: Current (esp-prog) External (esp-prog, iot-bus-jtag, jlink, minimodule, olimex-arm-usb-ocd, olimex-arm-usb-ocd-h, olimex-arm-usb-tiny-h, olimex-jtag-tiny, tumpa)
PACKAGES: 
 - framework-arduinoespressif32 3.10006.210326 (1.0.6) 
 - tool-esptoolpy 1.30000.201119 (3.0.0) 
 - tool-openocd-esp32 2.1000.20201202 (10.0) 
 - toolchain-xtensa32 2.50200.97 (5.2.0)
LDF: Library Dependency Finder -> http://bit.ly/configure-pio-ldf
LDF Modes: Finder ~ chain, Compatibility ~ soft
Found 28 compatible libraries
Scanning dependencies...
No dependencies
Building in debug mode
Retrieving maximum program size .pio/build/esp32-debug/firmware.elf
Checking size .pio/build/esp32-debug/firmware.elf
Advanced Memory Usage is available via "PlatformIO Home > Project Inspect"
RAM:   [          ]   2.5% (used 13384 bytes from 532480 bytes)
Flash: [==        ]  15.4% (used 201834 bytes from 1310720 bytes)
====================================================================================== [SUCCESS] Took 1.11 seconds ======================================================================================

Environment    Status    Duration
-------------  --------  ------------
esp32-debug    SUCCESS   00:00:01.106
====================================================================================== 1 succeeded in 00:00:01.106 ======================================================================================

Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.

DEBUGGER SAYS:

undefinedOpen On-Chip Debugger  v0.10.0-esp32-20201202 (2020-12-02-17:38)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
	http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
adapter speed: 20000 kHz

WARNING: boards/esp-wroom-32.cfg is deprecated, and may be removed in a future release.
2
Info : FreeRTOS creation
adapter speed: 5000 kHz

Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 5000 kHz
Info : JTAG tap: esp32.cpu0 tap/device found: 0x120034e5 (mfg: 0x272 (Tensilica), part: 0x2003, ver: 0x1)
Info : JTAG tap: esp32.cpu1 tap/device found: 0x120034e5 (mfg: 0x272 (Tensilica), part: 0x2003, ver: 0x1)
Info : esp32.cpu0: Target halted, PC=0x40087652, debug_reason=00000001
Info : esp32.cpu1: Target halted, PC=0x400E42DE, debug_reason=00000000
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Reading symbols from /Users/dressola/Documents/PlatformIO/Projects/210326-193027-arduino-blink/.pio/build/esp32-debug/firmware.elf...
done.
PlatformIO Unified Debugger -> http://bit.ly/pio-debug
PlatformIO: debug_tool = esp-prog
PlatformIO: Initializing remote target...
.pioinit:11: Error in sourced command file:
localhost:10242: Operation timed out.
2

If there were no debug debug symbols, this line would say “no debugging symbols found”, refer here, so that is absolutely not the problem. The ELF has the debug symbols. Still, debugging doesn’t start, but that’s a separate issue from that.

What’s the exact platformi.ini? What happens when you open a CLI and run pio debug --interface=gdb -x .pioinit per docs?

3

Thats the platformio.ini

[env:esp32-debug]
platform = espressif32
framework = arduino
board = az-delivery-devkit-v4

; change microcontroller
board_build.mcu = esp32
monitor_speed = 115200
build_flags = -D LED_BUILTIN=2

;uplad details
upload_port = /dev/cu.usbserial-1007
upload_protocol = esp-prog
upload_speed=921000

;debug details
debug_init_break = tbreak setup
debug_port = /dev/cu.usbserial-1442301

; if server manual started
;debug_port = localhost:10242
debug_tool = esp-prog
debug_speed = 500
build_type = debug
debug_build_flags = -g3
4

Bildschirmfoto 2021-04-15 um 17.09.26
Bildschirmfoto 2021-04-15 um 17.09.26865×541 44.3 KB

So no symbols, vars etc.

% pio debug --interface=gdb -x .pioinit

Open On-Chip Debugger  v0.10.0-esp32-20201202 (2020-12-02-17:38)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
adapter speed: 20000 kHz

WARNING: boards/esp-wroom-32.cfg is deprecated, and may be removed in a future release.
Info : FreeRTOS creation
Info : FreeRTOS creation
adapter speed: 500 kHz

Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 500 kHz
Info : JTAG tap: esp32.cpu0 tap/device found: 0x120034e5 (mfg: 0x272 (Tensilica), part: 0x2003, ver: 0x1)
Info : JTAG tap: esp32.cpu1 tap/device found: 0x120034e5 (mfg: 0x272 (Tensilica), part: 0x2003, ver: 0x1)
Info : esp32.cpu0: Debug controller was reset.
Info : esp32.cpu0: Core was reset.
Info : esp32.cpu1: Debug controller was reset.
Info : esp32.cpu1: Core was reset.
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Reading symbols from /Users/dressola/Documents/PlatformIO/Projects/210326-193027-arduino-blink/.pio/build/esp32-debug/firmware.elf...done.
PlatformIO Unified Debugger -> http://bit.ly/pio-debug
PlatformIO: debug_tool = esp-prog
PlatformIO: Initializing remote target...
Info : esp32.cpu0: Debug controller was reset.
Info : esp32.cpu0: Core was reset.
5

What happens if you remove this and

This is well?

6

debug_port is defined due there are several ports on the system

debug_build_flags are added afterwards, but it does’nt solve the problem :frowning:

9

Problem solved
Debugging ESP32 needs a special serial driver to connect JTAG.
Platformio also does not load the symbols before there is a stable (?) connection, also bot after there was a jtag connection sucess.
Installation on windows AND osx brougth the final sucess.
Debugger works on some system also without installed serial.
osx updates may need to retry this setup !