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Introduction to Kernel Debugging
Kernel debugging is a task normally performed by systems engineers writing
kernel programs. A kernel program is one that is built as part of the kernel
and that references kernel data structures. System administrators might
also debug the kernel in the following situations:
• A process is hung or stops running unexpectedly
• The need arises to examine, and possibly modify, kernel parameters
• The system itself hangs, panics, or crashes
This manual describes how to debug kernel programs and the kernel. It also
includes information about analyzing crash dump files.
In addition to the information provided here, tracing a kernel problem can
require a basic understanding of one or more of the following technical areas:
• The hardware architecture
See the Alpha Architecture Handbook for an overview of the Alpha
hardware architecture and a description of the 64-bit Alpha RISC
instruction set.
• The internal design of the operating system at a source code and data
structure level
See the Alpha Architecture Reference Manual for information on how the
Tru64 UNIX operating system interfaces with the hardware.
This chapter provides an overview of the following topics:
• Linking a kernel image prior to debugging for systems that are running
a kernel built at boot time. (Section 1.1)
• Debugging kernel programs (Section 1.2)
• Debugging the running kernel (Section 1.3)
• Analyzing a crash dump file(Section 1.4)
1.1 Linking a Kernel Image for Debugging
By default, the kernel is a statically linked image that resides in the file
/vmunix. However, your system might be configured so that it is linked
at bootstrap time. Rather than being a bootable image, the boot file is a
Introduction to Kernel Debugging 1–1