Hi, following man kgdb, I tested the cable on the first serial port (on the notebook) with the system console using cu -l /dev/tty05 -s 9600. And it works just fine.
I built a sparc Kernel with KGDB enabled: option KGDB # support for kernel gdb option KGDBDEV=0xc01 # kgdb device number (dev_t) option KGDBRATE=9600 # baud rate makeoptions DEBUG="-g" and in config/GENERIC I have DDB disabled: #option DDB # in-kernel debugger #option DDB_SAFE_CONSOLE # allow break into ddb during boot The kernel built fine so far, I run it on the target system, which is a Tadpole SPARCbook, see the dmesg. For the remote gdb, I connected the serial cable to the second serial port of the notebook. then in gdb on my debugging host I run: # gdb /home/sebastia/bsd.gdb ... (gdb) set remotebaud 9600 When the notebook is booting the system, then I run in gdb: (gdb) target remote /dev/tty05 And see on the console of the notebook: zstty1: kgdb interrupt kgdb waiting... and in gdb I see: (gdb) target remote /dev/cua05 Remote debugging using /dev/cua05 Ignoring packet error, continuing... Ignoring packet error, continuing... Ignoring packet error, continuing... Couldn't establish connection to remote target Malformed response to offset query, timeout (gdb) And then, that's it. The notebook doesn't seem to react on any keyboard input anymore, but gdb also doesn't seem to be able to connect to it via the serial line. The system running gdb is a i386. For kgdb to work, do I need to connect from a machine of the same architecture? I tried from my SS5, connected the serial cable to its second serial port, but I wasn't even able to get a serial console. # cu -l /dev/tty01 -s 9600 cu: open("/dev/tty01"): Device not configured Also tried cua01. I don't know which would be the right device. any hint what I may be doing wrong? The kernel on the Notebook is a bit modified, since I'm trying to port the dbri audio driver from NetBSD. Sebastian >From the notebook: $ cat /tmp/dmesg.kgdb OpenBSD 5.3-current (GENERIC.kgdb) #0: Sun Mar 31 17:57:23 CEST 2013 sebastia@warbird.ds9:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC.kgdb real mem = 66732032 (63MB) avail mem = 61648896 (58MB) mainbus0 at root: Tadpole_S3GX cpu0 at mainbus0: MB86904 @ 110 MHz, on-chip FPU cpu0: 16K instruction (32 b/l), 8K data (16 b/l) cache enabled obio0 at mainbus0 clock0 at obio0 addr 0x71202000: mk48t08 (eeprom) timer0 at obio0 addr 0x71d00000: delay constant 52, frequency 2000000 Hz zs0 at obio0 addr 0x71100000 pri 12, softpri 6 zstty0 at zs0 channel 0 zstty1 at zs0 channel 1 (kgdb) zs1 at obio0 addr 0x71000000 pri 12, softpri 6 zskbd0 at zs1 channel 0: keyboard, type 5, layout 0x21 wskbd0 at zskbd0: console keyboard zsms0 at zs1 channel 1 wsmouse0 at zsms0 mux 0 slavioconfig at obio0 addr 0x71800000 not configured auxreg0 at obio0 addr 0x71900000 auxreg1 at obio0 addr 0x71910000 tctrl0 at obio0 addr 0x42000020 pri 11 tctrl0: main power available clk-ctrl at obio0 addr 0x713c0000 not configured com0 at obio0 addr 0x713a0000 pri 13: ns16550a, 16 byte fifo com0: probed fifo depth: 0 bytes iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x4/0x0, page-size 4096, range 64MB sbus0 at iommu0: 22 MHz pnozz0 at sbus0 slot 0 offset 0x8000000 pri 2: rev 4, 800x600 wsdisplay0 at pnozz0 mux 1: console (std, sun emulation), using wskbd0 dma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400000: rev 2 esp0 at dma0 offset 0x8800000 pri 4: ESP200, 40MHz scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets, initiator 7 sd0 at scsibus0 targ 3 lun 0: <IBM, DPRS-21215 !, S61B> SCSI2 0/direct fixed serial.IBM_DPRS-21215_!_7L4V6079_ sd0: 1160MB, 512 bytes/sector, 2376864 sectors bpp0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc800000: DMA2 ledma0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0x8400010: rev 2 le0 at ledma0 offset 0x8c00000 pri 6: address 00:00:83:ae:11:44 le0: 16 receive buffers, 4 transmit buffers tslot0 at sbus0 slot 1 offset 0x2000000 pri 11: 2 slots pcmcia0 at tslot0 socket 0 ep0 at pcmcia0 function 0 "3Com, 3C574-TX Fast EtherLink PC Card, A" port 0x0/32: address 00:60:08:b3:f5:61 tqphy0 at ep0 phy 0: 78Q2120 10/100 PHY, rev. 3 pcmcia1 at tslot0 socket 1 dbri0 at sbus0 slot 2 offset 0x40 pri 9 vscsi0 at root scsibus1 at vscsi0: 256 targets softraid0 at root scsibus2 at softraid0: 256 targets bootpath: /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@4,8400000/esp@4,8800000/sd@3,0 root on sd0a (15849b035c6ca151.a) swap on sd0b dump on sd0b WARNING: preposterous time in file system WARNING: clock lost 10257 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE! from the SS5: OpenBSD 5.3-current (GENERIC) #21: Sat Mar 23 17:23:36 MDT 2013 dera...@sparc.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC real mem = 200933376 (191MB) avail mem = 192954368 (184MB) mainbus0 at root: SUNW,SPARCstation-5 cpu0 at mainbus0: MB86907 @ 170 MHz, on-chip FPU cpu0: 16K instruction (32 b/l), 16K data (32 b/l), 512K external (32 b/l) DVMA coherent cache enabled obio0 at mainbus0 clock0 at obio0 addr 0x71200000: mk48t08 (eeprom) timer0 at obio0 addr 0x71d00000: delay constant 82, frequency 2000000 Hz zs0 at obio0 addr 0x71100000 pri 12, softpri 6 zstty0 at zs0 channel 0: console zstty1 at zs0 channel 1 zs1 at obio0 addr 0x71000000 pri 12, softpri 6 zskbd0 at zs1 channel 0: no keyboard zsms0 at zs1 channel 1 wsmouse0 at zsms0 mux 0 slavioconfig at obio0 addr 0x71800000 not configured auxreg0 at obio0 addr 0x71900000 power0 at obio0 addr 0x71910000 fdc0 at obio0 addr 0x71400000 pri 11, softpri 4: chip 82077 iommu0 at mainbus0 addr 0x10000000: version 0x5/0x0, page-size 4096, range 64MB sbus0 at iommu0: 21.250 MHz dma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400000: rev 2 esp0 at dma0 offset 0x8800000 pri 4: ESP200, 40MHz scsibus0 at esp0: 8 targets, initiator 7 cd0 at scsibus0 targ 2 lun 0: <MATSHITA, CD-ROM CR-504, ST23> SCSI2 5/cdrom removable sd0 at scsibus0 targ 3 lun 0: <IBM, DCAS32160SUN2.1G, S60B> SCSI2 0/direct fixed serial.IBM_DCAS32160SUN2.1GF2583160_ sd0: 2063MB, 512 bytes/sector, 4226725 sectors bpp0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0xc800000: DMA2 ledma0 at sbus0 slot 5 offset 0x8400010: rev 2 le0 at ledma0 offset 0x8c00000 pri 6: address 08:00:20:89:d9:b5 le0: 16 receive buffers, 4 transmit buffers audiocs0 at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xc000000 pri 9 audio0 at audiocs0 "power-management" at sbus0 slot 4 offset 0xa000000 not configured cgsix0 at sbus0 slot 3 offset 0x0 pri 9: SUNW,501-2325, 1152x900, rev 11 wsdisplay0 at cgsix0 mux 1 wsdisplay0: screen 0 added (std, sun emulation) vscsi0 at root scsibus1 at vscsi0: 256 targets softraid0 at root scsibus2 at softraid0: 256 targets bootpath: /iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/sd@3,0 root on sd0a (1096ee405a923d3e.a) swap on sd0b dump on sd0b