{"id":4846,"date":"2019-06-10T21:36:37","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T04:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/?p=4846"},"modified":"2025-09-09T19:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T02:29:10","slug":"debugging-the-esp32-lyrat-board-via-jtag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/tutorials\/esp32\/lyrat\/","title":{"rendered":"Debugging the ESP32-LyraT board via JTAG"},"content":{"rendered":"

This tutorial shows how to debug the ESP32-LyraT board using a JTAG debugger with VisualGDB.<\/p>\n

We will clone the play_mp3_control<\/strong> sample, program it into the FLASH memory via JTAG and use the debugger to understand the relations between different parts of the example and the ESP-ADF framework.<\/p>\n

Before you begin, install VisualGDB 5.4 or later, get a compatible JTAG debugger (e.g. Olimex ARM-USB-OCD-H or Segger J-Link), enable the JTAG via the on-board jumpers and connect the JTAG-related pins to a JTAG20 cable as shown below:\"\"<\/a>The final setup including the board and the JTAG programmer should look similar to this:\"\"<\/a>Now we are ready to create a basic project and begin debugging it:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Start Visual Studio and open the VisualGDB ESP-IDF\/ESP-ADF project wizard:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. On the first page of the wizard select the GNU Make build subsystem, as it is the only build subsystem supported by the ESP-ADF framework:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. On the next page select your ESP32 toolchain and the ESP-ADF checkout. If you have not created ESP-ADF projects before, follow our ESP-ADF tutorial<\/a> to import the ESP-ADF framework into VisualGDB:\"\"<\/a>Update:<\/strong> For better compatibility with the latest ESP32 tools, we recommend selecting the consolidated toolchain<\/a> instead.<\/li>\n
  4. On the next page of the wizard select the play_mp3<\/strong> example under get-started<\/strong>:\"\"<\/a>Warning: do not select the play_mp3_control example, as it uses GPIO pins that make JTAG debugging impossible.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Ensure both the board and the JTAG debugger are plugged into USB and select your debugger on the Debug Method page of the VisualGDB’s project wizard:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Press the “Test” button to test the wiring and ensure that the JTAG programmer can communicate to the ESP32 chip: \"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Finally, press “Finish” to create the project and build it via Build->Build Solution:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Once the build succeeds, set a breakpoint in app_main()<\/strong> and start debugging by pressing F5. Note that the previous firmware programmed into the FLASH memory might trigger an internal error in the Espressif’s port of GDB:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. If this happens, try programming the FLASH memory using the COM port. First, select it via VisualGDB Project Properties -> ESP-IDF Project -> ESP-IDF configuration -> Default serial port:\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Then right-click in Solution Explorer and select “Program FLASH memory”:\"\"<\/a>Once the new firmware is programmed, reset the board by pressing the RST button and the further FLASH programming via JTAG should work as expected.<\/li>\n
  11. Set a breakpoint inside the app_main() function and hit F5 to begin debugging. Once VisualGDB finishes programming the FLASH memory and the breakpoint hits, step through the app_main()<\/strong> function to see the main tasks performed in it:\"\"<\/a>The app_main()<\/strong> function in the play_mp3<\/strong> example performs the following tasks:\n
      \n
    1. Creates a new audio pipeline by calling audio_pipeline_init()<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
    2. Creates an mp3 decoder with a custom callback function to the pipeline (mp3_decoder_init()<\/strong>).<\/li>\n
    3. Creates an I2S stream writer (is2_stream_init()<\/strong>) that will output the decoded waveforms to an I2S codec.<\/li>\n
    4. Adds the created objects to the pipeline and links them together (audio_pipeline_register()<\/strong> and audio_pipeline_link()<\/strong>).<\/li>\n
    5. Starts the pipeline by calling audio_pipeline_run()<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    6. Set a breakpoint in the mp3_music_read_cb()<\/strong> function that is called by the mp3 decoder to read the mp3 stream, then resume the program and wait for the breakpoint to hit:\"\"<\/a>Note how the mp3_music_read_cb()<\/strong> function simply copies the data from the mp3 file in the FLASH memory to the buffer provided by the caller (audio_element_input()<\/strong>) .<\/li>\n
    7. Set a breakpoint in app_main()<\/strong> after the call to audio_element_getinfo() and wait for it to trigger:\"\"<\/a>Note how the mp3 decoder has sent an AEL_MSG_CMD_REPORT_MUSIC_INFO<\/strong> message with the details on the decoded mp3 stream and the app_main() function received it by calling\u00a0audio_event_iface_listen()<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This tutorial shows how to debug the ESP32-LyraT board using a JTAG debugger with VisualGDB. We will clone the play_mp3_control<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[182,138],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4846"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9042,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4846\/revisions\/9042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/visualgdb.com\/w\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}