GDB for debugging Linux device drivers

Question

I am new to using GDB debugger. I am following the link http://www.linuxforu.com/2011/01/understanding-a-kernel-oops/ I am using the same code and the same Makefile. Syslogd is running and CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO is set to y. But, I am still not successful. When I open the .ko file with GDB I get the message

No debugging symbols found

and when I use the list* command, I get

No symbol table found.

Please help me out.

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is probably one of the quirks of building drivers out of tree. Using

CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=1 make

when you build your driver gets you the debug symbols.

Answer 2

You can try adding -g option while compiling the modules. This option should generate debugging symbols. Cannot say exactly why your flag 'CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO' is not working.