Intel® System Debugger User Guide

ID Date Version Classification
648476 10/17/2024 Confidential
Document Table of Contents

Version History

This page contains update summary of previous releases. To check full Release Notes for previous product versions:

Known Issues

Cannot launch Target Indicator, getting error about missing VCRUNTIME140_​1.dll / Cannot do any tracing with “Failed to load platform” error (Windows* host only)

Issue: This should not be an issue, but in case it appears - it means Microsoft* C++ Redistributables package is broken.

Workaround:

  1. Go to “Add/Remove Programs”.

  2. Uninstall all “Microsoft C++ Redistributables”.

  3. Uninstall Intel® System Debugger.

  4. Install Intel® System Debugger again.

Trace and debug operations on Alder Lake S require changes in platforms OS workaround settings

Issue: Power state transition (S5, S4, WR) with probe mode detection method TapPolling causes debug tool hang. Meanwhile, TapPolling is required for run control on targets with OS running. Starting with U2122 release, Intel® System Debugger NDA enables you to manage probe mode detection logic based on use cases.

Workaround: Follow instructions at <install_​dir>/documentation/tca/usage/connecting_​gui.html. Depending on your goals, complete step 7 as follows:

  • For BIOS debugging or FW/SW tracing, select “Target runs no OS” (Default). Debugging and tracing on platform that does power transitions requires this option selected.

  • For working with Architectural Event Traces (AET) or WinDbg over Intel® Direct Connect Interface (Intel® DCI), select “Target runs an OS”.

Disconnecting and reconnecting Intel System Debugger to Alder Lake S target with survivability flag enabled causes NorthPeak (NPK) hardware hang

Issue: During NPK tool disconnect and reconnect, NPK IP is power gated and then power un-gated and the default register value causes timeout and hang.

Workaround: Disable survivability mode if debugging across low power states is not required.

Low power debug is not supported for Alder Lake P due to missing Low Voltage Margining (LVM) overrides

Issue: Alder Lake P Best Known Configuration (BKC) does not support low power.

Workaround: N/A

Unicode error returned during target selection via console

Issue: When selecting a target with a command like trace.interactive_​setup(), an error like UnicodeEncodeError: ‘latin-1’ codec can’t encode character ‘u2122’ in position 24: ordinal not in range(256) is displayed.

Workaround: Before starting the console session, execute the following command:

  • Windows: set PYTHONIOENCODING=UTF8

  • Linux: export PYTHONIOENCODING=UTF8

Cannot connect Intel® System Debugger to Alder Lake P target with USB3 Debug Class (DbC)

Issue: Debug connection is not working with USB3 DbC connected to Alder Lake P. Reset break is also not functional.

Workaround: There are two ways to resolve connectivity issues with Intel System Debugger if USB3 DbC is detected:

  • In the final step of establishing target connection (“Connection Summary” dialog box), expand the “Platform Debug Configuration” tab and uncheck the “Configure High Bandwidth Transport” box.

  • Modify IFWI via Intel® Flash Image Tool (Intel® FIT) to enable USB2 port and avoid USB3 DbC detection.

Cannot establish USB DbC connection to debug the 10th generation Intel® NUC with Alder Lake M or Alder Lake P

Issue: When attempting to connect to the target using USB DbC, both Target Indicator and Windows* Device Manager report errors on the USB device (USB DbC probe).

Workaround: N/A

Target Indicator is not visible when being started on Linux* hosts with GNOME 3.26 and above (Linux* host only)

Issue: On Linux* hosts with GNOME 3.26 and above, the Target Indicator is not visible when being started because GNOME 3.26 removes the system tray that the Target Indicator heavily relies upon.

Workaround: You can start the Target Indicator executable with the --window-only (or short -w) flag, which makes the Target Indicator avoid using the system tray.

Cannot start the Target Indicator from a file explorer with older package versions (Linux* host only)

Issue: Starting the Target Indicator executable from a file explorer (for example, Nautilus) fails, since it is not recognized as an executable file.

Workaround: Upgrade the “file” package to a version higher than 5.36. Start the Target Indicator from the command line or via the provided application link (the package upgrade does not affect it). See the original bug report.

Reset causes libusb error and loss of run control on Linux* host

Issue : Warm or cold reset of the target connected to Comet Lake CPU/Comet Lake PCH-H (CML-S) in user interface or command line (ipccli) causes libusb error and loss of run control. Cold reset is necessary to connect to the target again.

Workaround: Use the Intel® DCI USB DbC2 instead of USB DbC3 on the port used for the debug connection. You can configure this in the Intel® Flash Image Tool (Intel® FIT)

  1. Launch the Intel® FIT (obtained from Intel® Validation Internet Portal) and change the following settings within your current configuration:

    • Debug > Direct Connect Interface Configuration > Direct Connect Interface (DCI) Enabled > Yes

    • Debug > Early USB DBC over Type-A Configuration > USB2 DbC port enable > USB2 Port <X>

      where X identifies the post number. Depending on the target, set the following value:

      • 1 - to enable USB2 DbC on the vertical USB type-A port on CML-U DDR4 boards

      • 3 or 4 - to enable USB2 DbC on either of the two stacked USB type-A ports respectively on CML-U LP3 boards

      • 8 - to enable USB2 DbC on the vertical USB type-A port on CML-S boards with CMP-H or CNP-H chipset.

  2. Build the image and flash the target with the new image.

Disconnecting a probe crashes the target (Windows* host only)

Issue: Intel® Silicon View Technology (Intel® SVT) Closed Chassis Adapter (CCA) and Intel® In-Target Probe (Intel® ITP) - XDP3 probes are supporting hot plug/unplug from a target, whereas for Intel® DCI DbC the connection is bidirectional. If a probe connection is lost, the debugger reports a Power Loss event.

Workaround: If the target was running, reconnect the probe (the disconnection has no effect on the running target). If the target was halted, reboot the target and restart the debugging session (the debug context is lost).

Platform security policy might inhibit debugger operation

Issue: In some platforms, the security policy might disable JTAG access to the CPU. This is intended to prevent reverse-engineering. In this case, the Intel® System Debugger will successfully connect to the target, but will not be able to discover any CPUs on the JTAG bus and will report that no CPU is available.

Workaround: Ensure that that platform firmware has enabled access to the CPUs via JTAG. You can do it by flashing a special “debug” firmware into the target. In some cases the CPU or the CPU module might physically disable JTAG access, especially in production or near-production versions. In this case, please work with the platform business unit to obtain a JTAG-enabled hardware.

Issue: When you attempting to archive Intel® DAL logs using the commands itp.daldebugloggerlevel("default") followed by itp.loggerarchive(), a “Permission Denied” error is printed.

Workaround: Before every execution of the commands above, navigate to <install-dir>\tools\DAL_​<version> and modify the PublicLogging.log4net file to replace “DALBase.log” with a location where you have write permissions (for example, C:\Temp\DALBase.log).

Cannot connect Intel® System Debugger to Raptor Lake CPU / Alder Lake PCH-S target with Intel® In-Target Probe (Intel® ITP) - XDP3

Issue: Debug connection is not working with Intel® ITP XPD3 connected to Raptor Lake CPU / Alder Lake PCH-S.

Workaround: Use a different debug probe (see Supported Platforms and Probes for available connection options).

Reset Break issues on Granite Rapids and Meteor Lake

Issue: Reset break does not work on properly Granite Rapids and Meteor Lake platforms. Planting and hitting reset break does not work reliable. Once it may work, other times it may fail sporadically to halt all cores.

Workaround:

  • Meteor Lake users can try to use Intel® System Debugger 2246.

  • For Granite Rapids there is currently no workaround.

Resume or step from Software Breakpoint issue on Granite Rapids D

Issue: Resume or step from Software Breakpoint issue on Granite Rapids D does not work properly. An attempt to resume execution or perform a step on a target halted in a Software Breaks does not work properly an can lead to a MCA exception.

Workaround: Use should use Hardware Breakpoints instead of Software Breakpoint.

Installation of DFLaunch fails

Issue: Installation of DFLaunch fails and the installer rolls back the installation.

Workaround: Check if there are existing virtual environments in DFLaunch with dfmanager and remove defect ones. Afterwards retry the installation.

Intel® PT Trace may contain incorrect data with “Incomplete PT Segment” warning

Issue: Target configured with Single Range Output larger than 4KB may cause incorrect output values to be recorded in Processor Trace (PT).

Workaround:

  • Change BIOS configuration in “Intel Advanced Menu -> Debug Settings -> Advanced Debug Settings -> Processor Trace Output Schema” to ToPA Output (Table of Physical Addresses) instead of Single Range Output.

  • Avoid using PT with Single Range Output schema larger than 4KB.

Eclipse terminal crashes sometimes

Issue: In some cases, the Eclipse terminal may crash due to incorrect or incomplete locale configuration on Ubuntu 22.04.

Workaround: This issue can be avoided by setting the correct locale configuration, e.g.

sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
ETW trace unavailable with Target Agent

Issue: In some cases it’s possible ETW trace won’t work with Target Agent on MTL-P.

Workaround: N/A

Target Connection Assistant

Sapphire Rapids 4-socket modular system is not detected automatically

Issue: Sapphire Rapids 4-socket system is not automatically detected by the Target Connection Assistant.

Workaround:

  1. Launch Intel® System Debugger, start establishing target connection, and choose “Manually select target” (for instructions, see the Intel System Debugger documentation).

  2. In the final step of the connection wizard, click the gear icon and update the new OpenIPC /Provider Configuration / Configuration Name to “SPR_​EBG_​XDPA_​Modular_​4Mhz”

Restarting application may create duplicate or invalid connections

Issue: When the Intel® System Debugger application window is closed and reopened, duplicate or invalid target connections may appear.

Workaround: Manually remove or ignore invalid connection entries.

Intel® System Debugger - System Debug

Intel® System Debugger: Debugging in SEAM root mode is known to currently be unstable

Issue: Debugging in SEAM root mode is known to currently be unstable

Workaround: N/A

Intel® System Debugger: TD guest debugging might require the target to be Red unlocked

Issue: TD guest debugging might require the target to be Red unlocked

Workaround: N/A

Intel® System Debugger: Extended PCI configuration space is unavailable.

Issue: Extended PCI configuration space is unavailable.

Workaround: N/A

Intel® System Debugger: PT instruction trace not functional in VMX enabled mode under OS.

Issue: PT instruction trace may not be functional in OS, if VMX is enabled in BIOS.

Workaround: Disable VMX BIOS option.

Intel® System Debugger: The Offline Processor Trace Callstack feature is currently limited to tracking function invocations and returns that are explicitly performed using the call and ret instructions. More complex control flow changes, such as those involving indirect jumps, are not yet supported by the feature.

Issue: MLimitations of Offline PT Callstack with Complex Scenarios

Workaround: N/A

Intel® System Debugger - System Trace

Rocky Linux 8 Support

Issue: Trace does not support Rocky Linux 8 because of GLIBC version mismatch (/lib/x86_​64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_​2.29 not found).

Workaround: Update to Rocky Linux 9

CentOS* 7 and OpenSuse* 15 host OS are not supported (Linux* host only)

Issue: CentOS* 7 and OpenSuse* 15 host OS are not supported for System Trace use cases.

Workaround: N/A

Various error messages referring to Interview_​Decoder.dll or visa64.dll are displayed (Windows* host only)

Issue: If the host system has IVI tools installed, the tool erroneously tries to load visa64.dll from C:WindowsSystem32 or Interview_​Decoder.dll from <install-dir>system_​debugger_​2020_​ndasystem_​tracebin.

Workaround: Do any of the following:

  • Temporarily remove C:\Windows\System32\visa64.dll or uninstall the IVI tools.

  • Check the information on the Dynamic-Link Library Search Order but be aware of the potential security implications.

On Discrete Graphic platforms (DG1/DG2), errors occur during connection attempt of trace capture start

Issue: Due to security policies in DG1 and DG2, access to North Peak Test Access Port over Lauterbach Processor Trace Interface connection is blocked, An error message “Failed Intel® Trace Hub hardware detection check!” appears.

Workaround: Currently, you can configure DG1/DG2 tracing only through firmware running on the target. To enable this tracing capability, launch Intel® Flash Image Tool (Intel® FIT), open Debug Settings, and configure the “Emergency mode”. To start tracing, configure the firmware as described above, connect the debug probe, deselect “Configure target during capture start and stop”, and press the “Start Capture” button in the Trace Tool. The error message “Error in connecting to the target. Target does not have power.” will appear but you can safely ignore it.

Issue: Using TraceCLI to capture traces fails with “Unknown mode specified, falling back to port list” error message (https://jira.devtools.intel.com/browse/DEBGGR-11176).

Workaround: Use Eclipse-based System Trace instead of TraceCLI.

Issues when using CCA 2wire for trace streaming

Issue: Connection get lost or invalid/no trace packets are received when using CCA 2wire while trace streaming is active.

Workaround: Use a different probe for trace streaming or use MTB as trace destination

Issue when extracting Trace data from memory on Linux hosts using Eclipse GUI

Issue: Extraction Service fails to read data, example error message: Exception encountered while extracting: Failed to read 32 bytes @ 0xfe180000

Workaround: Set export LD_​LIBRARY_​PATH=~/inteloneapi/system_​debugger/2410-nda/tools/OpenIPC/Bin/ before launching Eclipse

Message Distribution view does not work

Issue: Message distribution view does not show any data after decoding a capture. This view is no longer compatible with the new service-based Message viewer. The view will still work with legacy viewer if the capture is decoded with legacy usecase. Howvever, the Message Distribution view will be deprecated in the future.

Trace capture never stops on Linux

Issue: Stopping the trace capture may hang the tool on Linux.

Workaround: N/A, switch to windows or try Intel® System Debugger NDA 2422 if possible.

Intel® Debug Extensions for WinDbg

Compatibility issues of Intel® Debug Extensions for WinDbg for Windows* 10 SDK

Issue: WinDbg over Intel® DCI plugin is not compatible for Windows* SDK versions 1809 (10.0.17763) and 1903 (10.0.18362.1).

Workaround: Install the latest Windows* SDK version 22000.

Latest Windows* 11 SDK is not able to download symbols.

Issue: Windbg over Intel® DCI plugin is not able to download symbols with Windows* 11 SDK versions 22H2 (10.0.22621.0).

Workaround: Install previous Windows* SDK version 22000 (10.0.22000.194), or latest version (build 25197 or newer) from Windows Insider Preview Builds.

Intelligent Debug & Validation Tool (IDV Tool)

Captures are reported as starting later than the actual trigger

Issue: Sporadically captures are reported as starting later than the actual trigger.

Workaround: Trigger the same capture again.

Time difference between Analog and Digital samples

Issue: When capturing any channel as digital and analog a time difference between the two can be observed.

Workaround: None

Explanation: The analog values get sampled at a much lower speed and have to be transferred from the ADC to the IDV tool serially. Therefore an analog sample may have to wait n cycles, with n being the number of active analog channels up to a maximum of 16.

Stop trigger does not work when manual start trigger is used.

Issue: When capturing signals the stop trigger condition will not work if a manual start trigger was used.

Workaround: Configure a start trigger condition.