Thread: Has anybody messed about with kernel debugging?

  1. #1
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    63

    Has anybody messed about with kernel debugging?

    I am just curious about it, if anybody has tried it. What did you try it for, how did you find it, have you had much experience with regular software debugging first?

    Which operating system were you using, which tools did you try?

    Is there anything I should know about it?

    Just any information basically from your own experiences which you can share.

  2. #2
    chococoder
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Posts
    515
    yes I did it, once.
    Had to figure out how to control some of the control panel applets without pulling them onto the screen.
    The company had a strict (IMO overly paranoid but there you have it) policy and wouldn't allow the control panel to their users (in fact it wasn't even accessible readonly).
    So we started a kernel debugger to intercept the function calls generated when accessing the function we wanted to control, which were the options to reverse the left and right mouse buttons and set the mouse speed.

    This was under OS/2 Warp, using the tools provided by IBM for that platform. Didn't work alone, but together with a very experienced guy who had some 20 years of experience programming OS/2 including kernel debugging (which allowed him to find and patch a bug in Lotus a few months later and send the patch to IBM, must have made some people over there blush to get a binary patch for a memory leak sent to them by a customer).

    Kernel debugging isn't all that similar to regular debugging. You will need a good understanding of C and Assembler both.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. Kernel bug? (attn matsp)
    By brewbuck in forum Linux Programming
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 04-13-2009, 10:31 AM
  2. help on debugging
    By Masterx in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 56
    Last Post: 01-30-2009, 10:09 AM
  3. SOS - Can a monolithic kernel be used in a micro-kernel style OS?
    By sean in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 11-20-2008, 09:30 AM
  4. CreateThread ?!
    By Devil Panther in forum Windows Programming
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 11-15-2005, 10:55 AM
  5. Debugging book recommendation
    By dagans in forum Projects and Job Recruitment
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-13-2005, 07:35 PM