STM32F407VG Discovery - Debugger not starting when launched with VS Code

kdabros · February 12, 2021, 9:34pm

Hello everyone,

I’ve been trying to launch Platfotmio Unified Debugger for STM32F407VG Discovery board, via VS Code, using Run option (the one which uses launch.json). Unfortunately, after the upload, which goes just right, there is nothing more happening. Despite the fact that it is described as out of the box solution it is not launching at all. Don’t get me wrong, I do not want to complain, I am just trying to understand how to force it to run.

I know for the fact that my computer env is working properly, as using

pio debug --interface=gdb -x .pioinit

works perfectly fine and starts gdb debug session. You may see the results pasted below:

Reading symbols from /home/kuba/reps/stm32-synth/.pio/build/disco_f407vg/firmware.elf...done.
PlatformIO Unified Debugger -> http://bit.ly/pio-debug
PlatformIO: debug_tool = stlink
PlatformIO: Initializing remote target...
xPack OpenOCD, x86_64 Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-00378-ge5be992df (2020-06-26-09:27)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
Info : The selected transport took over low-level target control. The results might differ compared to plain JTAG/SWD
srst_only separate srst_nogate srst_open_drain connect_deassert_srst

Info : tcl server disabled
Info : telnet server disabled
Info : clock speed 2000 kHz
Info : STLINK V2J36S0 (API v2) VID:PID 0483:3748
Info : Target voltage: 2.896161
Info : stm32f4x.cpu: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : starting gdb server for stm32f4x.cpu on pipe
Info : accepting 'gdb' connection from pipe
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x61000000 pc: 0x08001078 msp: 0x2001ff80
Info : device id = 0x10016413
Info : flash size = 1024 kbytes
Info : flash size = 512 bytes
0x08001078 in HAL_GPIO_Init (GPIOx=0x2001ffa0, GPIO_Init=0x0)
    at /home/kuba/.platformio/packages/framework-stm32cubef4/Drivers/STM32F4xx_HAL_Driver/Src/stm32f4xx_hal_gpio.c:270
270             if((GPIO_Init->Mode & RISING_EDGE) == RISING_EDGE)
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x08003a48 msp: 0x20020000
Info : Unable to match requested speed 8000 kHz, using 4000 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 8000 kHz, using 4000 kHz
Loading section .isr_vector, size 0x188 lma 0x8000000
Loading section .text, size 0x1bfc lma 0x8000188
Loading section .rodata, size 0x58 lma 0x8001d84
Loading section .ARM, size 0x8 lma 0x8001ddc
Loading section .init_array, size 0x4 lma 0x8001de4
Loading section .fini_array, size 0x4 lma 0x8001de8
Loading section .data, size 0x70 lma 0x8001dec
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x08001a44 msp: 0x20020000
Start address 0x8001a44, load size 7772
Transfer rate: 9 KB/sec, 1110 bytes/write.
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1800 kHz
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x08001a44 msp: 0x20020000
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x08001a44 msp: 0x20020000
Temporary breakpoint 1 at 0x8000930: file src/main.cpp, line 11.
PlatformIO: Initialization completed
(gdb) PlatformIO: Resume the execution to `debug_init_break = tbreak main`
PlatformIO: More configuration options -> http://bit.ly/pio-debug
Continuing.
Note: automatically using hardware breakpoints for read-only addresses.

Temporary breakpoint 1, main () at src/main.cpp:11
11        {
(gdb)

It does not really matter which platormio.ini setting I am trying to use, none of them seemed to help me.

Is there something obvious I am missing?

I’ve tried other debugging options from the extension marketplace and they worked (more or less).

maxgerhardt · February 12, 2021, 9:42pm

Well it hit that temporary breakpoint here and kept running I think.

Do you get a box with debugging controls a while after starting the debugger? What does VSCode look like?

kdabros · February 12, 2021, 9:49pm

That output is from me issuing a command from terminal. It has nothing to do with VS Code. In fact, this is exactly the problem. VS Code builds my code, uploads it and that is it, nothing more happens. It looks like a silent fail of a gdb server or something like this.

maxgerhardt · February 13, 2021, 12:47am

Ok so terminal works as expected. So what does VSCode look like when you start debugging via the PIO side bar → project selection → PIO Debug?

grafik

kdabros · February 13, 2021, 9:04am

This is what happens. Exactly nothing - debug taskbar shows up, disappears and that’s it. There is no result at all, that is the whole point.

I have deliberately cleaned up the platrofmio.ini as none of my settings helped in any way.

maxgerhardt · February 13, 2021, 11:08am

Hm. There are few things to try here.

First of all, the PlatformIO debugging is known to not work if certain other extensions are installed (example). So I’d recommend to try it in a clean VSCode environment where just PlatformIO and its dependency (C/C++ by Microsoft) are installed.

Next, you should make sure that VSCode is not installed through some container thing like snap, but rather through the .deb file or apt.

Then you can also try different versions of the extensions. Per link above 2.1.0 for example.

grafik

Or, the newest beta version at PlatformIO IDE for VSCode 2.3 Beta – Help us with testing!.

Lastly, instead of the “PIO Debug (stm32-synth)” configuration there’s also a one with “Skip Pre-Debug” at the end – try that one.

I’m using PlatformIO on Linux too (standard Ubuntu) and don’t have a problem with the standard installation. Yours looks like Ubuntu Budgie and should work fine, too. What exact distributation version is that?

kdabros · February 13, 2021, 11:19am

Thank you very much! The extensions trick did the trick! (Pun intended… I am sorry…)

I’ve removed some extensions that I no longer use and I’ve disabled all others. Then decided to give debugger a test ride. It worked!

I’ll wait with closing this topic until I’ll determine which extension caused the trouble.

Thanks again!

kdabros · April 24, 2021, 1:39pm

I am sorry it took me so long but I have finally managed to get some time to try this. It appears that Atlassian (Jira and Bitbucket) and YAML extensions were responsible for debugger not launching. Watch out for those little ones!