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eclipsegdbstm32symbol-table
Chris Xia
Chris Xia

Reputation: 51

Eclipse complains "No symbol table is loaded" while elf file contains debug info

I am working on an STM32 processor. Using readelf -w, tons of debug information could be extracted from my elf file. A short piece of the output is shown below:

 <1><3faf>: Abbrev Number: 30 (DW_TAG_variable)
    <3fb0>   DW_AT_name        : (indirect string, offset: 0x24e): ITM_RxBuffer 
    <3fb4>   DW_AT_decl_file   : 19 
    <3fb5>   DW_AT_decl_line   : 1742   
    <3fb7>   DW_AT_type        : <0x3f48>   
    <3fbb>   DW_AT_external    : 1  
    <3fbc>   DW_AT_declaration : 1

dwarfdump also confirms debug info is available in elf file.

I am using the following software packages: Eclipse Juno arm-2011.03/bin/arm-none-eabi-gdb OpenOCD and JTAG key

After producing elf file, burn it into STM32 processor, and start the debug session in Eclipse. JTAG could be started and stopped, so I guess OpenOCD deamon is fine. Breakpoint cannot be set due to the fact "No symbol table is loaded". One thing I noticed is among the "variable/breakponts/register/modules" window, the modules tab showing the elf file loaded contains followiing details: Type: executable symbols: not loaded symbol file: BuildResult.elf

In debug configuration->Startup tab, check/uncheck "Load image/Load symbols" make no difference. I am wondering how eclipse loads elf file contained symbol info into the debug process?

Any suggestions, hints, are greatly appreciated.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1564

Answers (2)

0___________
0___________

Reputation: 68004

I would suggest using something having plugins for your hardware. I would suggest STM32CubeIDE not the DIY Eclipse IDE.

My guess is that you use generic gdb not arm-none-eabi-gdb and it never worked for me when I was trying to use multiarch gdb instead of dedicated one.

Upvotes: 0

SamR
SamR

Reputation: 399

This mostly cause by the fact that your program does not compile with the debug information. To fix this,

  1. Turn off all the optimization (use optimize for debug if such an option exists)
  2. Based on your toolchain and the compiler/debugger used, there will be further switches that needed to be enabled. One common one is -ggdb for gdb debug.

Furthermore, it is nice to know that -g produces debugging information in native format (stabs, COFF, XCOFF, or DWARF 2).

-ggdb produces gdb-friendly debugging information

-ggdb3 produces additional debugging information

Upvotes: 0

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