rust-raspberrypi-OS-tutorials/0B_hw_debug_JTAG

Tutorial 0B - Hardware Debugging using JTAG

In the upcoming tutorials, we are going to touch sensitive areas of the RPi's SoC that can make our debugging life very hard. For example, changing the processor's Exception Level or introducing virtual memory.

A hardware based debugger can sometimes be the last resort when searching for a tricky bug. Especially for debugging intricate, architecture-specific HW issues, it will be handy, because in this area QEMU sometimes can not help, since it abstracts certain features of our RPi's HW and doesn't simulate down to the very last bit.

So lets introduce JTAG debugging. Once set up, it will allow us to single-step through our kernel on the real HW. How cool is that?!

Outline

Functionally, this tutorial is the same as the previous one, where we reset or power down the RPi. Around that, we add infrastructure for JTAG debugging.

Hardware

Unlike microcontroller boards like the STM32F3DISCOVERY, which is used in our WG's Embedded Rust Book, the RPi does not have an embedded debugger on it's board. Hence, you need to buy one.

For this tutorial, we will use the ARM-USB-TINY-H by OLIMEX. It has a standard ARM JTAG 20 connector. Unfortunately, the RPi does not, so we have to connect it via jumper wires.

Wiring

GPIO #	Name	JTAG #	Note	Diagram
	VTREF	1	to 3.3V
	GND	4	to GND
22	TRST	3
26	TDI	5
27	TMS	7
25	TCK	9
23	RTCK	11
24	TDO	13

Configuring GPIO for JTAG

Before it is possible to connect, we additionally have to configure the respective GPIO pins for JTAG functionality from software. Our approach is as allows:

Via raspboot, we load a tiny helper binary onto the RPi which configures the pins respectively and then parks the executing core in an endless loop, waiting for the JTAG debugger to connect. The helper binary is maintained separately in this repository's X1_JTAG_boot folder, and is a stripped-down version of the code we use in our tutorials.

This functionality is provided by the new Makefile target make jtagboot.

ferris@box:~$ make jtagboot
Raspbootcom V1.0
### Listening on /dev/ttyUSB0
RBIN64
### sending kernel /jtag/jtag_boot.img [759 byte]
### finished sending


[i] JTAG is live. Please connect.

It is important to keep the USB serial connected and the terminal open with raspboot running. When we load the actual kernel later, UART output will appear here.

OpenOCD

Next, we need to launch the Open On-Chip Debugger, aka OpenOCD to actually connect the JTAG.

As always, our tutorials try to be as painless as possible regarding dev-tools, which is why we have packaged everything into a dedicated Docker container that will be provisioned automagically on the first run.

Now connect the Olimex USB JTAG debugger, open a new terminal and in the same folder, type make openocd (in that order!). You will see some initial output:

ferris@box:~$ make openocd
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-ge243075 (2019-03-07-19:07)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
	http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
trst_and_srst separate srst_gates_jtag trst_push_pull srst_open_drain connect_deassert_srst
adapter speed: 1000 kHz
jtag_ntrst_delay: 500
Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 1000 kHz
Info : JTAG tap: rpi3.tap tap/device found: 0x4ba00477 (mfg: 0x23b (ARM Ltd.), part: 0xba00, ver: 0x4)
Info : rpi3.core0: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : rpi3.core1: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : rpi3.core2: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : rpi3.core3: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Info : Listening on port 3334 for gdb connections
Info : Listening on port 3335 for gdb connections
Info : Listening on port 3336 for gdb connections

OpenOCD has detected the four cores of the RPi, and opened four network ports to which gdb can now connect to debug the respective core.

GDB

Finally, we need an AArch64-capable version of gdb. You guessed right, we packaged another container for you. It can be launched via make gdb.

This Makefile target actually does a little more. It builds a special version of our kernel with debug information included. This enables gdb to show the Rust source code line we are currently debugging. It also launches gdb such that it already loads this debug build (kernel8_for_jtag).

We can now use the gdb commandline to

1. Set breakpoints in our kernel
2. Load the kernel via JTAG in memory (remember that currently, the RPi is still executing the minimal JTAG pin enablement binary).
3. Manipulate the program counter of the RPi to start execution at our kernel's entry point.
4. Single-step through its execution.

>>> break _boot_cores
Breakpoint 1 at 0x80000
>>> target remote :3333   # Connect to OpenOCD, raspi3.core0
>>> load                  # Load the kernel into the Raspi's DRAM over JTAG.
Loading section .text, size 0x6cc lma 0x80000
Loading section .rodata, size 0x9a lma 0x806cc
Start address 0x80000, load size 1894
Transfer rate: 66 KB/sec, 947 bytes/write.
>>> set $pc = 0x80000 # Set RPI's program counter to the start of the kernel binary.
>>> cont
Breakpoint 1, 0x0000000000080000 in _boot_cores ()
>>> step
>>> step # Single-step through the kernel
>>> ...

Remarks

Optimization

When debugging an OS binary, you have to make a trade-off between the granularity at which you can step through your Rust source-code and the optimization level of the generated binary. The make and make gdb targets produce a --release binary, which includes an optimization level of three (-opt-level=3). However, in this case, the compiler will inline very aggressively and pack together reads and writes where possible. As a result, it will not always be possible to hit breakpoints exactly where you want to regarding the line of source code file.

For this reason, the Makefile also provides the make gdb-opt0 target, which uses -opt-level=0. Hence, it will allow you to have finer debugging granularity. However, please keep in mind that when debugging code that closely deals with HW, a compiler optimization that squashes reads or writes to volatile registers can make all the difference in execution. FYI, the demo gif above has been recorded with gdb-opt0.

GDB control

At some point, you may reach delay loops or code that waits on user input from the serial. Here, single stepping might not be feasible or work anymore. You can jump over these roadblocks by setting other breakpoints beyond these areas, and reach them using the cont command.

Pressing ctrl+c in gdb will stop execution of the RPi again in case you continued it without further breakpoints.

Notes on USB connection constraints

If you followed the tutorial from top to bottom, everything should be fine regarding USB connections.

Still, please note that in its current form, our Makefile makes implicit assumptions about the naming of the connected USB devices. It expects /dev/ttyUSB0 to be the UART device.

Hence, please ensure the following order of connecting the devices to your box:

1. Connect the USB serial.
2. Afterwards, the Olimex debugger.

This way, Linux enumerates the devices accordingly. This has to be done only once. It is fine to disconnect and connect the serial multiple times, e.g. for kicking off different make jtagboot runs, while keeping the debugger connected.

In summary

1. make jtagboot and keep terminal open.
2. Connect USB serial device.
3. Connect JTAG debugger USB device.
4. In new terminal, make openocd.
5. In new terminal, make gdb or make make gdb-opt0.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to @naotaco for laying the groundwork for this tutorial.