14.1.9. GDB Problems with BDI2000/BDI3000 on e500 Cores

Question:

I am using the cross-gdb from ELDK together with the BDI JTAG hardware debugger from Abatron to debug my e500 based system. When I try to attach to the BDI from within gdb, I get an error message like this:

$ ppc_85xxDP-gdb u-boot

.......

(gdb) target remote bdi14:2001
Remote debugging using bdi14:2001
Remote 'g' packet reply is too long:
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
(gdb) 

Answer:

If you are using at least BDI firmware v1.09 then most probably you forgot to include the following directive in the BDI config file:

[TARGET]
REGLIST     E500        ;send registers in E500 sequence to GDB

Also be sure that the gdb really thinks that it debugs an e500 core:

(gdb) show architecture 
The target architecture is set automatically (currently powerpc:e500)
(gdb)

If this is not the case, then fix this problem first. It might just be that you are not using the right cross debugger in the first place.