MSP430 and Eclipse

Requirements

Java SDK 1.4 (j2sdk-1_4_1_02-windows-i586.exe or any other Java that's compatible with Eclipse)
Eclipse installation (Eclipse.orgcdt-full-1.2-win32.zip)
CDT (C Deveoplement Platform plugin for Eclipse) (Eclipse.org eclipse-SDK-2.1.2-win32.zip or the newer one trough the online Eclipse.org update)
mspgcc install

Debugging in the ELF mode

Install this plugin: for Eclipse 3.0/CDT 2.x: net.sf.mspgcc.zip. (old one for Eclipse 2.0/CDT 1.x. no longer supported: net.sf.mspgcc-old.zip)

Simply unzip it in the plugins directory of Eclipse.org

Create the debugger configuration

Make sure that the Binary Parser is set to Elf Parser, see the dialog in 'Project -> Properties'.

Now copy the gdb ini file sto the project folder. These files have to be edited so that they load the elf file of the current project.

gdb-target.ini: this files contains the commands to run it on a real target (using gdbproxy)

gdb-sim.ini: this files runs the program in the gdb simulator

Then create a new debug configuration``:``

Click on "New" and update the settings as shown in the images:

Main tab
Name: (Project file name)
Project: (Project name)
C/CC++ Application: (must be the name of the resulting ELF file, so that the
debug info is found)

Debugger tab
GDB debugger: "msp430-gdb"
GDB command file: choose one of the ini files for the target or simulator

Tips

Turn off autorefresh

To speed up the debugging process, one can switch off the auto update features. Usualy it would upload lots of memory and registers when a breakpoint is hit. But in the single step mode it slows down a bit too much. But one has to rember to manualy refresh the views...

"Remove terminated launches when a new launch is created" in the dialog in the Window->Preferences, "Debug" Tab.

Clean up old debugger runs

Activate: "Remove terminated launches when a new launch is created" in the dialog in the Window->Preferences, "Debug" Tab.

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