VS Arduino - Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation

Jan 17^th, 2026 at 11:13pm (UTC)

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VS Arduino › Visual Micro › Usb/Serial/WiFi Debugging › Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation

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Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation (Read 7572 times)

Chris O Newbies Offline Posts: 4 Joined: Jan 13^th, 2015	Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Jan 13^th, 2015 at 4:34pm	Print Post
	I have VM install in Atmel studio and have a question about supporting the ATMEL ICE. If I build an Arduino project using VM, I can load the .elf output file using the Open menu’s Open Object File for Debugging option. Everything loads and source code is found, and I can use the Atmel ICE JTAG debugger to load and step code. The only problem with this is there is no symbolic information for the debugger, so it can’t display data watch information. I believe there is a linker option most likely enabled (-s) that is suppressing this information from being included in the .elf output file. My questions are. If I upgrade to the version of VM that supports the usb serial debugger, will symbolic information be included in the output file? Are there any plans for VM to support the Atmel ICE debugger? From what I can tell there is very little it would have to do to directly support this. (set complier/linker options to include symbol information and tie into Atmel studio such that it can directly start debugging) I would gladly pay the $30.00 for this tool if it allows me to use the Atmel ICE. They have a version of this tool for $50 plus $18 for shipping and to have a hardware debugging solution for under $100 for Arduino is huge, IMO.


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Tim@Visual Micro Administrator Offline Posts: 12204 Location: United Kingdom Joined: Apr 10^th, 2010	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #1 - Jan 13^th, 2015 at 4:56pm	Print Post
	Paying for vm won't help. If you want to alter the properties of the .elf that Visual Micro creates you can do that as long as you are using a 1.5.x build of Arduino. Edit the arduinoide/hardware/arduino/avr/arduino/platform.txt. Find the .recipe or pattern property for the linked and change as required. This will unfortunately affect all compilations but if you have the mind you can create a new board definition in boards.txt (same folder) and use additional properties as {merge fields} in the platform.txt. This would allow you to have two copies of the same board, one with debug and one without


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Chris O Newbies Offline Posts: 4 Joined: Jan 13^th, 2015	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #2 - Jan 16^th, 2015 at 3:23am	Print Post
	Thank you very much for that information. It can be hard to find this kind of thing at times.


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Berni Newbies Offline Posts: 9 Joined: Jan 19^th, 2015	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #3 - Jan 29^th, 2015 at 1:55pm	Print Post
	Hi Chris, were you able to figure out how to enable the symbolic information when using the elf file? Thanks.


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Berni Newbies Offline Posts: 9 Joined: Jan 19^th, 2015	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #4 - Jan 30^th, 2015 at 4:55pm	Print Post
	I am not sure, but I think I have found a solution. This is highly experimental! It is a starting point for your own experiments. I am using the new Atmel-ICE with an Arduino DUE (SAM3X8E) and I have changed C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\sam\platform.txt There are three compiler switch definitions which I have changed: compiler.c.flags compiler.S.flags compiler.cpp.flags In each line I have changed "-g" to "-g3" and added "-gdwarf-2" So from "-g" to "-g3 -gdwarf-2". Now, if I use "Open Object File for Debugging" in Atmel Studio and choose the generated elf file, generate debugging solution, I can debug with symbolic information. Works great for me. This might work for the AVR section in Arduino also, because there are similar compiler flags in the platform.txt. It would be nice if someone is able to test and confirm this. Please keep in mind, that code optimization can eliminate symbols/variables/code, so debugging could look strange. Another problem: The Arduino delay function is not save for debugging because in some situations (with active ICE) it never returns and the Atmel-ICE is watching forever. All these problems do not exist with the Visual Micro debugger. So there are some real advantages using the Visual Micro USB debugger with Arduino sketches.
	« Last Edit: Jan 30^th, 2015 at 5:01pm by Berni »

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Chris O Newbies Offline Posts: 4 Joined: Jan 13^th, 2015	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #5 - Feb 1^st, 2015 at 5:37am	Print Post
	A quick story: I did a lot of messing with this after hearing back from VM on this. I looked at the options Atmel Studio used with their system, etc. I had add the -g3 option and actually had something working using the Adafruit capacitive touch demo library. It looked as if the main file and added c/cpp files worked but libraries did not. That made sense to me since libs were not compiled with that option. So off I set on my project; but, when I got into things, once again, no variable information:( Well, I went out of town for a couple days and got back today. It was on my list to look at this again, but I thought I would check in on this forum. I am sooooo glad I did. I went back and again modified the platform.txt file to add the -gdwarf-2 option. I rebuilt my app and it worked!!! I had looked at those options, but thought that was for a different output format. Thank you so much for replying back to this Berni; I don't think I would have tried those options without seeing this. I did notice the delay function use can cause problems. I had not looked into that yet, but I was suspecting it was interrupt related with the interrupts not getting reenabled or something. I have seen an option before in debuggers including Atmel Studio to stop timers when the debugger stops, but that does not seem to be an option when loading an object file for debug. It is not that the ICE does not return if you mean your breakpoint does not get hit. It is just stuck in the delay operation from what I can tell. Thanks again Berni


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Berni Newbies Offline Posts: 9 Joined: Jan 19^th, 2015	Re: Atmel ICE debugging with symbolic infomation Reply #6 - Feb 1^st, 2015 at 5:43pm	Print Post
	Thank you very much for your confirmation. I did a lot of research in many different forums and a lot of testing. I am glad that it was worth the effort, also for you. Yes, sometimes the Arduino delay function never returns. The delay_ms of the Atmel ASF libs works completely different and it seems their solution does not cause these problems. There is some research necessary.
	« Last Edit: Feb 1^st, 2015 at 5:45pm by Berni »

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