2. Requirements

3. Setup

3.1. Hardware Setup

1. Set EVM to SD card boot: https://software-dl.ti.com/jacinto7/esd/processor-sdk-rtos-j784s4/11_00_00_06/exports/docs/psdk_rtos/docs/user_guide/evm_setup_j784s4.html
2. Connect the PC to the XDS110 Debugger port
3. Connect the PC to the UART port (open a terminal)

3.2. Software Setup

3.2.1. SD Card Setup

$ cd <path-to-SDK>
$ sudo ./bin/create-sdcard.sh

3.2.2. U-Boot Setup

# insert SD card
$ cd <path-to-SDK>
$ make u-boot
# edit BOOT_PART within Rules.make
$ vi Rules.make
$ make u-boot_install

3.2.3. OpenOCD Setup

$ sudo apt-get install libhidapi-dev libtool libusb-1.0-0-dev automake libjim-dev
$ git clone https://git.code.sf.net/p/openocd/code openocd
$ cd openocd
$ ./bootstrap
$ ./configure
$ make

Run the following commands to avoid having to run OpenOCD as root:

$ sudo cp ./contrib/60-openocd.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Command to run OpenOCD (don't run this for now):

$ cd tcl
$ sudo ../src/openocd -f ./board/ti_j784s4evm.cfg

3.2.4. GDB Setup

$ sudo apt-get install gdb-multiarch

4. Debug

4.1. Prime EVM

Boot the EVM and stop at the U-Boot console:

U-Boot SPL 2025.01-ti-g1ffc990e9b36 (Aug 18 2025 - 15:09:45 -0500)
SYSFW ABI: 4.0 (firmware rev 0x000b '11.0.9--v11.00.09+ (Fancy Rat)')
Trying to boot from MMC2
Skipping authentication on GP device
Skipping authentication on GP device
 
 
U-Boot 2025.01-ti-g1ffc990e9b36 (Aug 18 2025 - 15:09:45 -0500)
 
SoC:   J784S4 SR1.0 GP
Model: Texas Instruments J784S4 EVM
DRAM:  2 GiB (total 32 GiB)
mmio-mux mux-controller@4080: unable to set idle state
Core:  143 devices, 36 uclasses, devicetree: separate
Flash: spi_nand nand@0: Winbond SPI NAND was found.
spi_nand nand@0: 128 MiB, block size: 256 KiB, page size: 4096, OOB size: 128
k3-navss-ringacc ringacc@2b800000: Ring Accelerator probed rings:286, gp-rings[96,20] sci-dev-id:328
k3-navss-ringacc ringacc@2b800000: dma-ring-reset-quirk: disabled
cadence_spi spi@47040000: Pattern not found. Skipping calibration
0 Bytes
MMC:   mmc@4f80000: 0, mmc@4fb0000: 1
Loading Environment from nowhere... OK
In:    serial@2880000
Out:   serial@2880000
Err:   serial@2880000
am65_cpsw_nuss ethernet@46000000: K3 CPSW: nuss_ver: 0x6BA02102 cpsw_ver: 0x6BA82102 ale_ver: 0x00293904 Ports:1
Net:   eth0: ethernet@46000000port@1
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>

Get relocaddr:

=> bdinfo
boot_params = 0x0000000000000000
DRAM bank   = 0x0000000000000000
-> start    = 0x0000000080000000
-> size     = 0x0000000080000000
DRAM bank   = 0x0000000000000001
-> start    = 0x0000000880000000
-> size     = 0x0000000780000000
flashstart  = 0x0000000000000000
flashsize   = 0x0000000000000000
flashoffset = 0x0000000000000000
baudrate    = 115200 bps
relocaddr   = 0x00000000ffe97000
reloc off   = 0x000000007f697000
Build       = 64-bit
current eth = ethernet@46000000port@1
ethaddr     = 04:25:e8:b6:96:f5
IP addr     = <NULL>
fdt_blob    = 0x00000000fde32220
lmb_dump_all:
 memory.count = 0x2
 memory[0]  [0x80000000-0xffffffff], 0x80000000 bytes, flags: none
 memory[1]  [0x880000000-0xfffffffff], 0x780000000 bytes, flags: none
 reserved.count = 0x4
 reserved[0]    [0x9e800000-0xabffffff], 0xd800000 bytes, flags: no-map
 reserved[1]    [0xfce2f000-0xfce31fff], 0x3000 bytes, flags: no-notify, no-overwrite
 reserved[2]    [0xfce32210-0xffffffff], 0x31cddf0 bytes, flags: no-overwrite
 reserved[3]    [0x880000000-0xfffffffff], 0x780000000 bytes, flags: no-overwrite
devicetree  = separate
serial addr = 0x0000000002880000
 width      = 0x0000000000000000
 shift      = 0x0000000000000002
 offset     = 0x0000000000000000
 clock      = 0x0000000002dc6c00
arch_number = 0x0000000000000000
TLB addr    = 0x00000000ffff0000
irq_sp      = 0x00000000fde32210
sp start    = 0x00000000fde32210
Early malloc usage: 3548 / 8000
=>

4.2. Start OpenOCD

$ cd tcl
$ sudo ../src/openocd -f ./board/ti_j784s4evm.cfg
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.12.0+dev-00574-g2c8376b79 (2024-05-16-14:38)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
    http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
adapter speed: 2500 kHz
Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : XDS110: connected
Info : XDS110: vid/pid = 0451/bef3
Info : XDS110: firmware version = 3.0.0.32
Info : XDS110: hardware version = 0x002f
Info : XDS110: connected to target via JTAG
Info : XDS110: TCK set to 2500 kHz
Info : clock speed 2500 kHz
Info : JTAG tap: j784s4.cpu tap/device found: 0x0bb8002f (mfg: 0x017 (Texas Instruments), part: 0xbb80, ver: 0x0)
Info : [j784s4.axi_ap] Examination succeed
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.sysctrl on 3333
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.0 on 3334
Info : Listening on port 3334 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.1 on 3335
Info : Listening on port 3335 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.2 on 3336
Info : Listening on port 3336 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.3 on 3337
Info : Listening on port 3337 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.4 on 3338
Info : Listening on port 3338 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.5 on 3339
Info : Listening on port 3339 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.6 on 3340
Info : Listening on port 3340 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.a72.7 on 3341
Info : Listening on port 3341 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.mcu_r5.0 on 3342
Info : Listening on port 3342 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.mcu_r5.1 on 3343
Info : Listening on port 3343 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main0_r5.0 on 3344
Info : Listening on port 3344 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main0_r5.1 on 3345
Info : Listening on port 3345 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main1_r5.0 on 3346
Info : Listening on port 3346 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main1_r5.1 on 3347
Info : Listening on port 3347 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main2_r5.0 on 3348
Info : Listening on port 3348 for gdb connections
Info : starting gdb server for j784s4.cpu.main2_r5.1 on 3349
Info : Listening on port 3349 for gdb connections
Info : gdb port disabled
Info : accepting 'gdb' connection on tcp/3334
Info : j784s4.cpu.a72.0: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : j784s4.cpu.a72.0 cluster 0 core 0 multi core

4.3. Start GDB

$ gdb-multiarch
# connect to A72_0
>>> target extended-remote localhost:3334

The symbol table needs to be added, but U-Boot relocates itself. This is why we ran bdinfo earlier.

0x00000000ffe97000 comes from that. Depending on the device, this value may be different.

>>> add-symbol-file <path-to-SDK>/board-support/ti-u-boot-2025.01+git/build/a72/u-boot 0x00000000ffe97000

You can begin debugging like normal now.