CCS 4.1.1 not selectable for non-standard make?

Jason, if you want to launch a debug session without building the project, why not set the target configuration you wish to use as the default and use the "Launch TI Debugger" option? Or you can right-click on your ccxml file and launch a debug session that way. Then you can select your out file to load.

ki

Jason I suspect that on the first machine you created a "Standard Make Project" and on the second one you created a "CCS Project".  For CCS Projects CCS is going to try to build the files, for Standard Make projects it lets your build command handle it.

John

Ki-Soo Lee said:

Jason, if you want to launch a debug session without building the project, why not set the target configuration you wish to use as the default and use the "Launch TI Debugger" option? Or you can right-click on your ccxml file and launch a debug session that way. Then you can select your out file to load.

Because then it's a "Non-Project Debug Sesion" (at least it is in CCSv4.0.1.01001) and the debugging software can't seem to find the source files. The only way I can debug in 4.0.1 is to use Target -> Debug Active Project.

JohnS said:

Jason I suspect that on the first machine you created a "Standard Make Project" and on the second one you created a "CCS Project".  For CCS Projects CCS is going to try to build the files, for Standard Make projects it lets your build command handle it.

Is there a User's Guide to CCSv4? There are about 37,000 different options that configure things in a multitude of different ways, and that are very hard to figure out. That's why I don't use the IDE builder, because you can't control the build configurations in a way that can be easily managed in conjunction with code reviews and source control systems.

Argh! I got further, but the behavior is still different from my first machine running 4.0.1

Now when I do "Debug Active Project" here's what happens on my 2nd machine running 4.1.1:

1. A dialog box pops up saying "You have more than one executable file, please select one." (I have motorctrl_RAM.out and motorctrl_FLASH.out. In 4.0.1 I selected one via the Build Options.) There does not appear to be a way to select one in a way that is "sticky", I keep having to pick one.

2. It does not automatically connect to target or load the program. I have to manually connect to the target, and then manually load the program (or load symbols).

Again, this is really frustrating. While I appreciate that CCSv4 has all these little low-level options, I would like to be able to setup some common actions and then just have one-click solutions to things like:

a) Erase FLASH. (how can I do this?)

b) Connect target and reload program.

c) Connect target to a running program and load symbols.

I finally figured out that you want to use "load symbols" to debug a program that is already loaded (assuming you know which one), vs. "load program" is for initializing the program memory (RAM or FLASH). You really need a quick user's guide that explains the basic concepts of running/debugging programs with CCSv4. I looked at the materials in the wiki (http://tiexpressdsp.com/index.php/Category:Code_Composer_Studio_v4) and I didn't see anything, they mostly covered making and building projects.

The "Load Program" behavior in CCSv4 is frustrating. The whole program hangs for about 10-20 seconds while it's trying to connect to the target or erase or whatever.

Jason,

Working with the standard make project is a bit tricky.  In a CCS project you would have separate build configurations and CCS would know which .out to load based on which one is active

Make sure you have a ccxml file in your project.

Right click on your project and select Debug Properties.

On the debugger tab ensure that "Connect to exact CPU" lists the CPU you want to load your program on.  

Select the Target tab.  Here you will see a lot of the default actions like: "Connect to target on debugger startup", "Auto run to main"...

As far as erasing and flashing it should do that automatically.  What do you have selected in your ccxml file for connection and device?  You can change the flash settings once the debugger is launched by going to Tools -> On-Chip Flash.  From there you can also perform specific actions like just erasing the flash.  One thing you can do to speed things up is uncheck any flash regions you are not using as CCS will erase them all by default.

When using a standard make project it will always prompt you which one you want to load.  If you use the drop down arrow beside the bug button and select the item that has the name of your project this will launch the debugger and automatically load the one you selected last time.  This thing you are selecting in the list is something called a "launch".  We try to abstract them in CCS as there are enough Eclipse concepts to deal with as it is.  However in a situation like this they can be useful.

Make sure you don't have any debug sessions running.  Go to the arrow beside the bug button, click it and then select "Debug...".  Under the "Project Debug Session" node in the tree you should see an item that has the name of your standard make project.  Click on it.  Now on the left you can see the settings for this launch.  Including those same Debugger and Target tabs used above.  What you could do is select the one that is your project, click the copy button at the top of the dialog.  You should now have something like project and project (1).  Select Project (1) and change the .out file it references to be the other one in your project and also change the name at the top to indicate which program you are going to load.  Doing this you can create separate launches for each of your programs that are available from that debug drop down.

Regards,
John