permalink: /sgx-sdk-docs/setup-gdb-ubuntu18

This instruction is provided by @akoskinas. Thanks! This is an updated version of the process, which contains bug fixes and additional comments.

Before start: In our setup, the debugging works only when building in simulation mode, i.e

cd rust-sgx-sdk/samplecode/hello-rust-vscode-debug/
SGX_MODE=SW SGX_DEBUG=1 make
cd bin
sgx-gdb ./app

A short description of the process needed in order to use GDB to remotely debug a Rust SGX enclave with sgx gdb in Ubuntu 18.04:

  1. Make sure that the package libsgx-enclave-common-dbgsym_${version}-${revision}_amd64.ddeb is installed, as described here: https://github.com/intel/linux-sgx#build-the-intelr-sgx-psw-installer . The package can also be found here: https://download.01.org/intel-sgx/linux-2.5/ubuntu18.04-server/

  2. Make sure to set up the needed environment variables before compiling your code. To do so, run:

  $ source ${sgx-sdk-install-path}/environment
  1. As documented here , an older version of GDB debugger has to be utilized for debugging. The steps to use gdb-7.11.1 are
  • get the source code of version 7.11.1 :
wget "http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gdb/gdb-7.11.1.tar.gz"
  • extract
tar -xvzf gdb-7.11.1.tar.gz
  • install the python development headers, needed to configure the GDB python interpreter:
sudo apt-get install python3-dev
  • configure the build: because python scripts will be given as input to the GDB, a python interpreter has to be configured at this step. To do so the option “with-python” shall be used, followed by the path to the desired python version
cd gdb-7.11.1
./configure --with-python=/usr/bin/python3
  • build: in order for building to complete the following changes are required to solve a type conflict - building takes ~3mins :

In file: gdb/amd64-linux-nat.c:248 --> delete word “const” in file: gdb/gdbserver/linux-x86-low.c:239:1 --> delete word “const”

make
  • Two options are available to complete installation:

If GDB 7.11.1 is desired to be located in /usr/bin/gdb then execute:

sudo make install

If GDB 7.11.1 is desired to be located in a different location, two symbolic links are needed. In our case, we chose to place gdb-7.11.1 folder under /opt directory. In that case the respective commands will look like the following:

 sudo ln -sf /opt/gdb-7.11.1/gdb/gdb /usr/bin/gdb
 cd /usr/local/share
 # if gdb dir doesn't exist, create it : mkdir -p gdb
 cd gdb
 # if python dir doesn't exist, create it: mkdir -p python
 cd python
 sudo ln -s /opt/gdb-7.11.1/gdb/data-directory/python/gdb/ /usr/local/share/gdb/python/
  1. Up until this point, local debugging should be successful. The final step is to use VS Code, by following the steps described [here](use-vscode---rls---rust-analysis---sgx-gdb-for-graphic-developing-(not-in-docker).