DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / pdbg / pdbg.8.en
PDBG(8) System Administration Utilities PDBG(8)

pdbg - PowerPC FSI Debugger

pdbg [options] command ...

pdbg is a simple application to allow debugging of the host POWER processors from the BMC. It works in a similar way to JTAG programmers for embedded system development in that it allows you to access GPRs, SPRs and system memory.

Requires device (-d) to be set to p8|p9
Run command on all possible processors/chips/threads (default)
Several backends are supported depending on which system you are using :
A backend based on cronus server
A backend using sbefifo kernel driver
An experimental backend that uses bit-banging to access the host processor via the FSI bus.
The P8 only backend which goes via I2C.
The default backend which goes the kernel FSI driver.
For I2C the device node used by the backend to access the bus.
For FSI the system board type, one of p8 or p9w
Defaults to /dev/i2c4 for I2C
Device slave address to use for the backend. Not used by FSI and defaults to 0x50 for I2C.
0:error (default) 1:warning 2:notice 3:info 4:debug
Shut up those annoying progress bars

Read General Purpose Register (GPR)
Write General Purpose Register (GPR)
Get Special Purpose Register (SPR)
Write Special Purpose Register (SPR)
Read a ring. Length must be correct
Start thread
Set a thread <count> instructions
Stop thread
Hardware Trace Macro
Read system cfam
Write system cfam
Read system scom
Write system scom
Read system memory
Read system memory
Read memory cache inhibited with specified transfer size
Write to system memory
Write to system memory
Write system memory cache inhibited with specified transfer size
Print the status of a thread
Reset
State (optionally display backtrace)
Start a gdb server
Execute istep on SBE

Several backends are supported depending on which system you are using and are selected using the -b option:

POWER8 Backends:

  • i2c (default): Uses an i2c connection between BMC and host processor
  • fsi: Uses a bit-banging GPIO backend which accesses BMC registers directly via /dev/mem/. Requires -d p8 to specify you are running on a POWER8 system.

POWER9 Backends:

  • kernel (default): Uses the in kernel OpenFSI driver provided by OpenBMC
  • fsi: Uses a bit-banging GPIO backend which accesses BMC registers directly via /dev/mem. Requiers -d p9w/p9r/p9z as appropriate for the system.
  • sbefifo: Uses the in kernel OpenFSI & SBEFIFO drivers provided by OpenBMC

When using the fsi backend POWER8 AMI based BMC's must first be put into debug mode to allow access to the relevant GPIOs:

ipmitool -H <host> -U <username> -P <password> raw 0x3a 0x01

On POWER9 when using the fsi backend it is also a good idea to put the BMC into debug mode to prevent conflicts with the OpenFSI driver. On the BMC run:

systemctl start fsi-disable.service && systemctl stop host-failure-reboots@0.service

Usage is straight forward. Note that if the binary is not statically linked all commands need to be prefixed with LD_LIBRARY_PATH= in addition to the arguments for selecting a backend.

pdbg has commands that operate on specific hardware unit(s) inside the POWER processor. To select appropriate hardware unit (commonly referred as target), pdbg provides two different mechanisms.

Many commands typically operate on hardware thread(s) or CPU(s) as identified by Linux.

  • all threads (-a)
  • core 0 of processor 0 (-p0 -c0)
  • all threads on processor 0 (-p0 -a)
  • all threads on core 1 of processor 0 (-p0 -c1 -a)
  • thread 2 on core 1 of processor 0 (-p0 -c1 -t2)
  • thread 0 on all cores of processor 0 (-p0 -t0 -a)
  • threads 1,2,3,4 on cores 1,3,5 of processor 1 (-p1 -c1,3,5 -t1-4)
  • CPUs 15 and 17 as identified by Linux (-l15,17)

Note: -l option is only available when running pdbg on the host.

To select any target in a device tree, it can be specified using -P. The -P option takes path specification as an argument. This path specification is constructed using the class names of targets present in a device tree.

Some of the targets currently available for selection are:

  • pib
  • core
  • thread
  • adu
  • fsi
  • chiplet

Path specification can be either an individual target or a path constructed using more than one targets.

  • all threads (-P thread)
  • core 0 of processor 0 (-P pib0/core0)
  • all threads on processor 0 (-P pib0/thread)
  • all threads on core 1 of processor 0 (-P pib0/core1/thread)
  • thread 2 on core 1 of processor 0 (-P pib0/core1/thread2)
  • thread 0 on all cores of processor 0 (-P pib0/thread0)
  • threads 1,2,3,4 on cores 1,3,5 of processor 1 (-P pib1/core[1,3,5]/thread[1-4])
  • chiplet at address 21000000 (-P chiplet@21000000)
  • all adus (-P adu)
  • First FSI (-P fsi0) 

$ pdbg --help
Usage: pdbg [options] command ...


 Options:


        -p, --processor=processor-id


        -c, --chip=chiplet-id


        -t, --thread=thread


        -a, --all


                Run command on all possible processors/chips/threads (default)


        -b, --backend=backend


                fsi:    An experimental backend that uses


                        bit-banging to access the host processor


                        via the FSI bus.


                i2c:    The P8 only backend which goes via I2C.


                kernel: The default backend which goes the kernel FSI driver.


        -d, --device=backend device


                For I2C the device node used by the backend to access the bus.


                For FSI the system board type, one of p8 or p9w


                Defaults to /dev/i2c4 for I2C


        -s, --slave-address=backend device address


                Device slave address to use for the backend. Not used by FSI


                and defaults to 0x50 for I2C


        -V, --version


        -h, --help


 Commands:


        getcfam <address>


        putcfam <address> <value> [<mask>]


        getscom <address>


        putscom <address> <value> [<mask>]


        getmem <address> <count>


        putmem <address>


        getvmem <virtual address>


        getgpr <gpr>


        putgpr <gpr> <value>


        getnia


        putnia <value>


        getspr <spr>


        putspr <spr> <value>


        start


        step <count>


        stop


        threadstatus


        probe


$ pdbg -a probe
proc0: Processor Module


    fsi0: Kernel based FSI master (*)


    pib0: Kernel based FSI SCOM (*)


        chiplet16: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq0: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet32: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core0: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet33: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core1: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                ex1: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet34: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core2: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet35: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core3: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


        chiplet17: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq1: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet36: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core4: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet37: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core5: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                ex1: POWER9 ex


        chiplet18: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq2: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet40: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core8: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet41: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core9: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                ex1: POWER9 ex


        chiplet19: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq3: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet44: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core12: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet45: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core13: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                ex1: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet46: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core14: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet47: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core15: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


        chiplet20: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq4: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet48: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core16: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet49: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core17: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                ex1: POWER9 ex


        chiplet21: POWER9 Chiplet


            eq5: POWER9 eq


                ex0: POWER9 ex


                ex1: POWER9 ex


                    chiplet54: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core22: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)


                    chiplet55: POWER9 Chiplet


                        core23: POWER9 Core (*)


                            thread0: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread1: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread2: POWER9 Thread (*)


                            thread3: POWER9 Thread (*)
proc1: Processor Module
proc2: Processor Module
proc3: Processor Module
proc4: Processor Module
proc5: Processor Module
proc6: Processor Module
proc7: Processor Module
Note that only selected targets (marked with *) and targets in the
hierarchy of the selected targets will be shown above. If none are shown
try adding '-a' to select all targets.

Core-IDs are core/chip numbers which should be passed as arguments to -c when performing operations such as getgpr that operate on particular cores. Processor-IDs should be passed as arguments to -p to operate on different processor chips. Specifying no targets is an error and will result in the following error message:

Note that only selected targets will be shown above. If none are shown
try adding '-a' to select all targets

If the above error occurs even though targets were specified it means the specified targets were not found when probing the system.

$ pdbg -P pib getscom 0xf000f
p0: 0x00000000000f000f = 0x222d104900008040 (/proc0/pib)
p1: 0x00000000000f000f = 0x222d104900008040 (/proc1/pib)

$ pdbg -P pib1 putscom 0x8013c02 0x0

$ pdbg -a threadstatus
p0t: 0 1 2 3
c22: A A A A
c21: A A A A
c20: A A A A
c19: A A A A
c15: A A A A
c14: A A A A
c07: A A A A
c05: A A A A
p1t: 0 1 2 3
c23: A A A A
c22: A A A A
c21: A A A A
c20: A A A A
c19: A A A A
c18: A A A A
c17: A A A A
c16: A A A A

Reading thread register values requires all threads on a given core to be in the quiesced state.

$ pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 -t1 -t2 -t3 stop
$ pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 -t1 -t2 -t3 threadstatus
p0t: 0 1 2 3
c22: Q Q Q Q


$ pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 getgpr 2
p0:c22:t0:gpr02: 0xc000000000f09900


$ pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 getspr 8
p0:c22:t0:spr008: 0xc0000000008a97f0


pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 -t1 -t2 -t3 start
pdbg -p0 -c22 -t0 -t1 -t2 -t3 threadstatus
p0t: 0 1 2 3
c22: A A A A


$ echo hello | sudo pdbg -p 1 putmem 0x250000001
Wrote 6 bytes starting at 0x0000000250000001


$ sudo pdbg -p 1 getmem 0x250000001 6 | hexdump -C
0x0000000250000000:    68 65 6c 6c 6f 0a
$ sudo pdbg -p 1 getmem 0x250000001 6 --raw | hexdump -C
00000000  68 65 6c 6c 6f 0a                                 |hello.|
00000006


$ echo hello | sudo pdbg -p 1 putmem --ci 0x3fe88202
Wrote 6 bytes starting at 0x000000003fe88202


$ sudo pdbg -p 1 getmem --ci 0x3fe88202 6 --raw | hexdump -C
00000000  68 65 6c 6c 6f 0a                                 |hello.|
00000006


$ lsprop /proc/device-tree/hwrng@3ffff40000000/
ibm,chip-id      00000000
compatible       "ibm,power-rng"
reg              0003ffff 40000000 00000000 00001000
phandle          100003bd (268436413)
name             "hwrng"
$ sudo pdbg -p 0  getmem --ci 0x0003ffff40000000 4 --raw |hexdump -C
00000000  01 c0 d1 79                                       |...y|
00000004
$  sudo pdbg -p 0  getmem --ci 0x0003ffff40000000 4 --raw |hexdump -C
00000000  77 9b ab ce                                       |w...|
00000004
$  sudo pdbg -p 0  getmem --ci 0x0003ffff40000000 4 --raw |hexdump -C
00000000  66 8d fb 42                                       |f..B|
00000004
$  sudo pdbg -p 0  getmem --ci 0x0003ffff40000000 4 --raw |hexdump -C
00000000  fa 9b e3 44                                       |...D|
00000004

Exploitation of HTM is limited to POWER8 Core from the powerpc host.

Core HTM on POWER8 needs to run SMT1 and no power save, so you need to run this first:

ppc64_cpu --smt=1
for i in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpuidle/state*/disable;do echo 1 > $i;done

Also, using HTM requires a kernel built with both CONFIG_PPC_MEMTRACE=y (v4.14) and CONFIG_SCOM_DEBUGFS=y. debugfs should be mounted at /sys/kernel/debug. Ubuntu 18.04 has this by default.

pdbg provides a htm command with a variety of sub-commands. The most useful command is record which will start the trace, wait for buffer to fill (~1 sec), stop and then dump the trace to a file (~5 sec). eg.

pdbg -l 0 htm core record

pdbg -l allows users to specify CPUs using the same addressing as scheme as taskset -c. This can be useful for tracing workloads. eg.

taskset -c 0 myworkload
sleep 1
pdbg -l 0 htm core record

There are also low level htm commands which can also be used:
- start will configure the hardware and start tracing in wrapping mode.
- stop will still stop the trace and de-configure the hardware.
- dump will dump the trace to a file.

At the moment gdbserver is only supported on P8 while the cores are in the kernel.

To run a gdbserver on a P8 machine from a BMC running openbmc:

Stop all the threads of the core you want to look at $ pdbg -d p8 -c11 -a stop

Run gdbserver on thread 0 of core 11, accessible through port 44 $ pdbg -d p8 -p0 -c11 -t0 gdbserver 44

On your local machine: $ gdb (gdb) set architecture powerpc:common64 (gdb) target remote palm5-bmc:44

Debugging info: (gdb) set debug remote 10

Notes: 1. DON'T RUN PDBG OVER FSI WHILE HOSTBOOT IS RUNNING. Weird things seem to happen. 2. If you want to view the kernel call trace then run gdb on the vmlinux that the host is running (the kernel needs to be compiled with debug symbols).

Development and patch review happens on the mailing list at:

pdbg@lists.ozlabs.org

Patches are tracked through patchwork:

https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/pdbg/list

Pull requests via Github are also acceptable if you are not familiar with email based patch submission.

October 2021 pdbg