Can you use USB for Kernel debugging with XP(embedded)

Hi,
I am debugging a KMDF driver on an embedded board running windows XP
embedded standard. The board has no legacy serial ports and I would need
some riser cards/adapters to add a fire-wire card (I am not at all sure
whether that is even possible). The board has however four USB ports
compatible to EHCI (US15W chipset).

Does anyone know whether I can attach a second PC for kernel debugging
over USB (with XPe). I've browsed a few pages on the MS site which
indicate that this is possible with a special USB debug adapter. Can
anyone give me a link to a suitable one?. The PLX one doesn't seem to be
available anymore.

If XPe and USB debugging doesn't work, are there any other suggestions?
Should I for instance try installing windows embedded 7 (which I think
can be debugged over USB)?

Thanks for any suggestions.

No, USB debugging requires Vista or later. Also, it very hard to get USB
debugging to work, you need a USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller on both
machines with the debug machine having Port 1 of the Root Host Controller
available, you can use Usbview from the Windbg to check this.

For the debug cable, Google "Usb Debug Cable" there are vendors out there,
they cost roughly $100. But, I would forget USB debugging if at all
possible it is EXTREMELY TEMPERMENTAL and either 1394 or Serial are much
more reliable, even if you can get USB to work in the first place.



--
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DKD)
Windows Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Website: http://www.windrvr.com
Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
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"Charles Gardiner" <> wrote in message
news:hgtlr2$kck$02$...
> Hi,
> I am debugging a KMDF driver on an embedded board running windows XP
> embedded standard. The board has no legacy serial ports and I would need
> some riser cards/adapters to add a fire-wire card (I am not at all sure
> whether that is even possible). The board has however four USB ports
> compatible to EHCI (US15W chipset).
>
> Does anyone know whether I can attach a second PC for kernel debugging
> over USB (with XPe). I've browsed a few pages on the MS site which
> indicate that this is possible with a special USB debug adapter. Can
> anyone give me a link to a suitable one?. The PLX one doesn't seem to be
> available anymore.
>
> If XPe and USB debugging doesn't work, are there any other suggestions?
> Should I for instance try installing windows embedded 7 (which I think
> can be debugged over USB)?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
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> signature database 4712 (20091223) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
>
>



__________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 4712 (20091223) __________

The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

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"Charles Gardiner" <> wrote in message
news:hgtlr2$kck$02$...
> Hi,
> I am debugging a KMDF driver on an embedded board running windows XP
> embedded standard. The board has no legacy serial ports and I would need
> some riser cards/adapters to add a fire-wire card (I am not at all sure
> whether that is even possible). The board has however four USB ports
> compatible to EHCI (US15W chipset).
>
> Does anyone know whether I can attach a second PC for kernel debugging
> over USB (with XPe). I've browsed a few pages on the MS site which
> indicate that this is possible with a special USB debug adapter. Can
> anyone give me a link to a suitable one?. The PLX one doesn't seem to be
> available anymore.
>
> If XPe and USB debugging doesn't work, are there any other suggestions?
> Should I for instance try installing windows embedded 7 (which I think
> can be debugged over USB)?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.

Have you checked the board well? There's a chance that it has a TTL
serial connector - 2 or 3 pins, rather than the normal RS232 connector.
There are ready convertors on sale from TTL to RS232.

( I've had quite positive experience with debugging over USB, it's
a pity that they abandoned that.)

Also, it should be easy to test the board with Win7:
Make a WinPE bootable USB drive from the WAIK:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...1-39c26d3b3b34

To save reading & fiddling time, I just made the PE ISO image, per the WAIK
docum,
then formatted the USB flash on another win7 machine and made it bootable
with diskpart,
then extracted the ISO to the USB drive. Maybe it can be done in fewer
steps.
Then run bcdedit with /store arg pointing to boot\bcd file on the WinPE usb
drive,
and set the debug parameters as usual.
Insert the USB flash into your board, connect with windbg, reboot.
And bingo, the win7 (PE) will run under debugger, on a diskless machine.

Regards,
--pa

> Have you checked the board well? There's a chance that it has a TTL
> serial connector - 2 or 3 pins, rather than the normal RS232 connector.
> There are ready convertors on sale from TTL to RS232.
>

No, the board definitely doesn't have such a connector. It's quite small
with minimal parts to keep power consumption down (Atom, US15W etc.).
I've looked at the spec again in the meantime, the only chance of
getting at the serial port is through the LPC (Intel "Low Pin Count")
interface, but that is unfortunately not connected to my FPGA on the
customer's board. If I need it, maybe I can get a ribbon cable or seven
twisted pair lines (might need shielding at 33 MHz) etc. patched onto
one board. I'd put a uart and LPC slave into the FPGA and get at COMx
from there.

If the LPC idea doesn't work and I'm stuck with USB, maybe Windows
Embedded 2011 would be better (which I assume is essentially Win 7
inside). I have the beta from the MS connect website, haven't tried it
yet though. I'm not sure whether I could get Win 7 onto a compact flash
and running acceptably.

In the meantime I recompiled everything with PreFast which did uncover a
Spinlock in the wrong place. Looks as if that was causing the occasional
crash, the system has been running for 12 hours since so if I'm really
lucky I won't need to debug on the customers board at all. I have the
driver and test app running since ten days on a Win-XP machine with an
FPGA eval board, so I suppose it's relatively stable.

Thanks to all for your thoughts/comments.