Windbg symbol error

Question

I'm attempting to debug an application using WinDbg. The server doesn't have internet access, so I can't use the Microsoft Symbol server. I went ahead and downloaded the symbols for Server 2012 R2 Retail. Moved them over to the server, and installed to C:\Symbols.

When I attempt to run the debugger, I get the following output.

CommandLine: C:\actionsync\ActionSync\ActionSync.exe

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location 
Deferred                                       srv*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location
Deferred                                       .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Executable search path is: srv*
DBGHELP: SharedUserData - virtual symbol module
ModLoad: 00ec0000 00ecc000   ActionSync.exe
ModLoad: 77120000 7728f000   ntdll.dll
ModLoad: 6fc30000 6fc86000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOREE.DLL
ModLoad: 74de0000 74f20000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KERNEL32.dll
ModLoad: 74f20000 74ff7000   C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KERNELBASE.dll
(1054.478): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
DBGHELP: Invalid path: '.sympath srv*c:\symbols*'
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll - 
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols
eax=00000000 ebx=00000000 ecx=7fdc0000 edx=00000000 esi=7ee16000 edi=00000000
eip=771d3c7d esp=0104f2f4 ebp=0104f320 iopl=0         nv up ei pl zr na pe nc
cs=0023  ss=002b  ds=002b  es=002b  fs=0053  gs=002b             efl=00000246
ntdll!LdrInitShimEngineDynamic+0x6dd:
771d3c7d cc              int     3

I am completely new to using WinDbg. Additionally, I cannot install VS on this machine.

As far as I know, I have everything setup correctly, but I'm still not able to debug this application.

Any help would be appreciated.

---

EDIT 1:

I updated the symbol path based on Thomas Weller's Comment

Here is the output

0:000> .sympath
Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Expanded Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location
Deferred                                       .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Error: Change all symbol paths attempts to access '.sympath c:\symbols' failed: 0x7b - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location
Error                            16            .sympath c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath c:\symbols
0:000> .reload
Reloading current modules
.....
DBGHELP: Invalid path: '.sympath c:\symbols'
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll - 
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols

************* Symbol Loading Error Summary **************
Module name            Error
ntdll                  All symbol search paths were invalid
            Please check your symbol search path.


The following location did not respond and were excluded during symbol loading:
.sympath c:\symbols

---

EDIT 2:

So, it appears that the sympath is case sensitive.

I updated the sympath C:\Symbols

This is the output.

************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response                         Time (ms)     Location
OK                                             c:\Symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: c:\symbols
0:000> .reload
Reloading current modules
.....
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found.  Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll - 
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols

************* Symbol Loading Error Summary **************
Module name            Error
ntdll                  PDB not found : c:\symbols\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb
            Unable to locate the .pdb file in this location

Answer 1

For both solutions, you need a copy of WinDbg (not neccesarily an installation). You find symchk in the WinDbg folder.

Solution for a specific dump / specific debug session

1. On the machine where you're debugging, create crash dump file with .dump. Skip this step if you already have a crash dump file.

2. At a command prompt, create a manifest file, i.e. a file that contains information about the symbols to be downloaded

   symchk /id <dumpfile>.dmp /om D:\symbols.manifest
   

   /id is for input = dump

   /om is for output = manifest

3. Transfer that manifest file onto a machine with Internet access.

4. On the Internet machine then run

   symchk /im X:\symbols.manifest /s srv*X:\downloadedsymbols\*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols /od
   

   at the command prompt.

   /im is for input = manifest

   /od is for output details (like verbose)

5. Transfer the symbols back to the machine without Internet access. Copy them into a new folder, e.g. c:\downloadedsymbols, not c:\symbols . Don't use an existing symbol path, because the n-tier-layout might not match.

6. Open the crash dump in WinDbg.

7. Fix the symbols

   .sympath C:\downloadedsymbols
   

   and maybe

   .reload /f
   

Solution for retrieving all symbols of the machine without Internet

Note: this process may take really long, since it may download thousands of symbols

1. At a command prompt, run

   symchk /r /if %windir% /om D:\windir.manifest
   

   /r is for recursive

   /if is for input = files

   /om is for output = manifest

2. Transfer that manifest file onto a different machine with Internet access.

3. On the Internet machine, run

   symchk /im X:\windir.manifest /s srv*X:\winsymbols\*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols /od
   

   /im is for input = manifest

   /od is for output details (like verbose)

4. Transfer the symbols back to the machine without Internet access. Copy them into a new folder, e.g. c:\winsymbols, not c:\symbols . Don't use an existing symbol path, because the n-tier-layout might not match.

5. Use the symbols with

   .sympath C:\winsymbols
   .reload