Technical Document #44

Technical Document #44
Version: 5.0.4 and above

Sending debug information from WinDriver's kernel module to a kernel debugger



Beginning with version 5.0.4 of WinDriver, you can send the debug information that is received from WinDriver's kernel module and calls to WD_DebugAdd() or PrintDbgMessage() in your code, to a kernel debugger. This option enables you to direct the debug information to a kernel debugger of your choice.

To direct the debug messages to a kernel debugger, follow these steps:

  1. Open your selected kernel debugger.
  2. Run the Debug Monitor and select to direct the WinDriver debug messages to a kernel debugger, using either of the following methods:
    • Open the GUI version of the Debug Monitor — wddebug_gui (available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux), check the "Send debug messages to the operating system kernel debugger" option in the Debug Options window, and press 'OK'.
    • Run the console-mode version of the Debug Monitor — wddebug (available on all the supported operating systems) — with the dbg_on command:
      WDDEBUG [<driver_name>] dbg_on [<level>] \
          [<sections>]
      (For more information regarding the wddebug options, see Technical Document #13.)
  3. Run your application, reproduce the problem, and view the debug information in the kernel debugger log.

Windows users can use Microsoft's WinDbg tool, for example; this tool is distributed with the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and and is part of the Debugging Tools for Windows package, distributed via the Microsoft web site.
Windows users can also use DebugView to monitor debug output.
For more information regarding DebugView, see Technical Document 33.

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