layout: post title: Debugging Linux Kernel With GDB date: 2026-02-12 08:41 +0530 image: ipi/ipi-header.png tags: [kernel, linux, gdb, debug] ready: false —

How to debug via gdb

We will use ppc64le pseries with power10 processor for the rest of the series.

Prepare to debug via gdb:

• Using this rootfs.

• Compiling the linux kernel with ppc64le_defconfig and enable debugging symbols. I am using an x86 machine and debugging for ppc64le.
• Using the following command to invoke the qemu, -s will start the gdb server on port 1234 and -S will wait till a gdb client is attached.

  qemu-system-ppc64 -nographic -vga none \
    -M pseries -smp 2 -m 4G -accel tcg \
    -kernel ./vmlinux \
    -netdev user,id=net0 -device e1000e,netdev=net0 \
    -initrd  ~/src/build-containers/ppc64le/ppc64le-rootfs.cpio.gz \
    -append "noreboot" \
    -cpu power10 \
    -s -S
  

Connect the gdb to it