Starting a debug session triggers the error "Don't know how to run. Try "help target"."

[omarArm]

Hi,

I am trying to use the extension to run the command arm-none-eabi-gdb <my_program.elf>. However, I am receiving the error

Don't know how to run. Try "help target".

Here is my launch.json configuration,

{
            "type": "gdb",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Debug with eclipe",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/armgcc/debug/led_blinky_cm0.elf",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "verbose": true,
            "openGdbConsole": true,
            "gdb": "arm-none-eabi-gdb"        
}

It is the first time I use the extension, so please go easy on me and assume that I know nothing

Environment:

Machine: macOS, Sequoia 15.1, M2 chip
VScode version: 1.96.0
Extension version: 1.0.1

[jonahgraham]

The key change you want is "type": "gdbtarget" because it is for target debugging and "type": "gdb" is for host debugging. I think you will also want to fill in the "target" structure.

Consider doing a "request": "attach", if you are launching your gdbserver manually (e.g. Starting JLlink GDB Server yourself).

If you do "request": "launch", then you need to specify which gdbserver the adapter should automatically launch for you.

{
            "type": "gdbtarget",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Debug with eclipe",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/armgcc/debug/led_blinky_cm0.elf",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "verbose": true,
            "openGdbConsole": true,
            "gdb": "arm-none-eabi-gdb"        
}

assume that I know nothing

No worries - there is very little to no documentation. Where the above info should be is https://github.com/eclipse-cdt-cloud/cdt-gdb-vscode?tab=readme-ov-file#launch-settings but no one has written that yet.

Please ask more questions.

[omarArm]

Thanks a lot for your quick reply. I am now trying two different approaches

1. using the request: "attach", because obviously that is the easier route that would make things work faster.
2. using the request: "launch", because I want to start my debugging session from a single gate. As in just with the click of a button everything works, without the need to start a gdbserver on another terminal

Now regarding option 1, everything is working just fine, no problems

Now regarding option 2, I would like to run the gdbserver using pyocd, so I added server: "pyocd gdbserver" to my configuration. However, I am facing another error that is

gdbserver has hit error Error: spawn pyocd gdbserver ENOENT

Please find here my launch.json for the launch request

       {
            "type": "gdbtarget",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Debug with eclipe launching",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/armgcc/debug/led_blinky_cm0.elf",
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "verbose": true,
            "gdb": "/Users/omaelk01/.vcpkg/artifacts/2139c4c6/compilers.arm.arm.none.eabi.gcc/13.3.1/bin/arm-none-eabi-gdb",
            "target": {
                "server": "pyocd gdbserver",
                "port": "3333",
                "serverParameters": []
            }

}

Sorry to be bombarding you with all of that. Any help would be appreciated

[jonahgraham]

Now regarding option 2, I would like to run the gdbserver using pyocd, so I added server: "pyocd gdbserver" to my configuration. However, I am facing another error that is

The server needs to be a command, so just pyocd in this case and then any command line parameters passed in serverParameters, e.g. "serverParameters": ["gdbserver"]

If you are interested in under the hood, this is because of how server and serverParameters are passed to spawn: (source link)

[omarArm]

It is working now, thank you!