Windows version of the TI Tiva/Stellaris lm4tools

Target

First, you have to know that this software was tested only on the TI EK-TM4C123GXL LaunchPad board. Those boards use a chip to translate from USB to JTAG commands. The chip is called ICDI and it implements a GDB compatible link using a standard WinUSB driver.

Note: At that moment, the tool was tested on Windows 10 only.

Installation

This code is only intended for Windows and it is on a alpha state and no release is currently available.

The tool uses the standard TI drivers (WinUSB.sys). Just use the drivers supplied by TI (spmc016a).

The driver installs:

• USB Composite Device (VID_1CBE&PID_00FD)
• Stellaris Virtual Serial Port (VID_1CBE&PID_00FD&MI_00)
• Stellaris ICDI DFU Device (VID_1CBE&PID_00FD&MI_03)
• Stellaris ICDI JTAG/SWD Device (VID_1CBE&PID_00FD&MI_02)

Installation from source (advanced users)

Use a Visual Studio 2017 Community Edition (or better) to compile the project.

Using the gdb server

To run the gdb server:

> TivaGdbAgent.exe

The GDB server waits for a connection at the port localhost:7777.

Then, in your project directory, something like this:

> arm-none-eabi-gdb blink.elf
...
(gdb) tar extended-remote :7777
...
(gdb) load
Loading section .text, size 0x458 lma 0x8000000
Loading section .data, size 0x8 lma 0x8000458
Start address 0x00000000, load size 109288
Transfer rate: 17 KB/sec, 6071 bytes/write.
(gdb)
...
(gdb) continue

Resetting the chip from GDB

You may reset the chip using GDB if you want. You'll need to use `target extended-remote' command like in this session:

(gdb) target extended-remote localhost:7777
Remote debugging using localhost:7777
0x080007a8 in _startup ()
(gdb) kill
Kill the program being debugged? (y or n) y
(gdb) run
Starting program: /home/bally/firmware.elf

Remember that you can shorten the commands. `tar ext :7777' is good enough for GDB.

Running programs from SRAM

You can run your firmware directly from SRAM if you want to. Just link it at 0x20000000 and do

(gdb) load firmware.elf

It will be loaded, and pc will be adjusted to point to start of the code, if it is linked correctly (i.e. ELF has correct entry point).

Writing to flash

The GDB stub ships with a correct memory map, including the flash area. If you would link your executable to 0x08000000 and then do

(gdb) load firmware.elf

then it would be written to the memory.

FAQ

TBD.

Known missing features

Some features are missing from the grumat/TivaGdbAgent project and we would like you to help us out if you want to get involved:

• Test on Windows 7
• Flash only tool (use LM Flash Programmer for now)

Known bugs

TBD.

Contributing and versioning

• When creating a pull request, please open first a issue for discussion of new features. Bugfixes don't need a discussion.

License

The stlink library and tools are licensed under the BSD license.

The WinUSBWrappers source files uses a custom freeware license.