There are many different ways you set up debugging the Linux kernel across platforms and using physical or virtual machines, using internal options such as KDB or KGDB, which are interfaces to the kernel's debug core, are the most notable couple. I'm going to show you how to utilize impressive visualization features with VMware to set up debugging for a Linux guest VM on a Mac OS X host machine using VMware and GDB. It's fairly straightforward, so if you're just starting out in kernel land, this is a chance for you to embrace a modern approach to Linux kernel debugging.
Environment
Host: Mac OS X Yosemite x64, VMware Fusion
Guest: Ubuntu Linux 14.04 x86
Note: Most of this should also be applicable to Windows host systems running VMware Workstation.
Step 1: Configure your host
Download the iso file for your target guest machine
Create a new virtual machine and install the guest OS
Shutdown the virtual machine and edit it's VMX file (if it's not a separate file, you can right-click the VM file and"Show Package Contents".
Add the following line at the end of the file:
debugStub.listen.guest32 = 1
Save and close the VMX file and boot your guest machine.
Step 2: Configure your guest
Make sure the system is completely up to date, eg. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade and reboot once complete.
Then open up a terminal and do the following:
codename=$(lsb_release -c | awk '{print $2}')
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ddebs.list << EOF
deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com/ ${codename} main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com/ ${codename}-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com/ ${codename}-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com/ ${codename}-proposed main restricted universe multiverse
EOF
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys
ECDCAD72428D7C01
sudo apt-get install linux-image-`uname -r`-dbgsym
This will update your apt sources in order to be able to pull down dbgsym for your current running kernel. We'll use these symbols later to make debugging much more effective.
Now you should see a new file was dropped:
/usr/lib/debug/boot/vmlinux-<kernel version>-generic
Copy this file to your host machine as we'll use it for symbols in GDB soon.
Step 3: Build and Connect GDB
The VMware debugging service for the guest VM is listening via host loopback on port 8832. We can use GDB to connect to the service and debug our virtual machine.
But first, we have do a custom build which supports ELF binaries in Terminal:
(If you don't have wget, install MacPorts)
wget http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb/gdb-7.8.tar.gz
tar xf gdb-7.8.tar.gz
cd gdb-7.8
./configure --build=x86_64-apple-darwin14.0.0 --target=x86_64-vfs-linux --with-python && make
make install
(gdb) target remote :8832
Remote debugging using :8832
(gdb) symbol-file vmlinux-<kernel version>-generic
Reading symbols... done
Now you should be able to see details in the stack trace (bt) and if you encounter a kernel panic, you'll drop into the debugger!
Start Debugging
If you hit ctrl+c during boot, for example, then you can verify it's working.
^C Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt. 0xc1147b1c in copy_page (from=<optimized out>, to=0xfffb9000) at /build/buildd/linux-3.13.0/arch/x86/include/asm/page_32.h:47 47 /build/buildd/linux-3.13.0/arch/x86/include/asm/page_32.h: No such file or directory.
(gdb) i r eax 0xfffb9000 -290816 ecx 0x400 1024 edx 0x1000 4096 ebx 0x1e8 488 esp 0xedb4be48 0xedb4be48 ebp 0xedb4be68 0xedb4be68 esi 0xecbe8000 -323059712 edi 0xfffb9000 -290816 eip 0xc1147b1c 0xc1147b1c <copy_user_huge_page+76> eflags 0x210246 [ PF ZF IF RF ID ] cs 0x60 96 ss 0x68 104 ds 0x7b 123 es 0x7b 123 fs 0xd8 216 gs 0xe0 224
(gdb) c Continuing.
You can also intentionally trigger a kernel panic via the Magic SysRq sub-system. Using a root shell (sudo bash, not sudo this-cmd) on the guest.
echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger
Misc
Looks like there's guide to even use IDA's debugger for kernel remotes.
References
http://askubuntu.com/questions/197016/how-to-install-a-package-that-contains-ubuntu-kernel-debug-symbols
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kernel-team/2014-July/045843.html
http://stackframe.blogspot.com/2007/04/debugging-linux-kernels-with.html
http://ntraft.com/installing-gdb-on-os-x-mavericks/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:HSCTIWJMsXQJ:xulei.me/blog/2012/03/13/set-up-vmware-fusion-for-linux-kernel/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
