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I am using VS 2015 to learn windows driver development.code & compile are ok. But i can not debug on target machine via net.
here are the output of vs:
----------------------------------------------------------------
[22:12:32:074]: Gathering kernel debugger settings
[22:12:32:080]: Removing any existing files from test execution folder.
[22:12:32:446]: Copying required files for "Gathering kernel debugger settings".
[22:12:37:967]: [Gathering kernel debugger settings] Command Line: $KitRoot$\Testing\Runtimes\TAEF\te.exe "%SystemDrive%\DriverTest\Run\DriverTestTasks.dll" /select:"@Name='DriverTestTasks::_LogDebuggerSettings'" /rebootStateFile:%SystemDrive%\DriverTest\Run\DriverTestReboot.xml /enableWttLogging /wttDeviceString:$LogFile:file="%SystemDrive%\DriverTest\Run\Gathering_kernel_debugger_settings_00013.wtl",writemode=append,encoding=unicode,nofscache=true,EnableLvl="WexStartTest|WexEndTest|WexXml|WexProperty|WexCreateContext|WexCloseContext|*" /runas:Elevated
[22:12:41:624]: Result Summary: Total=1, Passed=1, Failed=0, Blocked=0, Warned=0, Skipped=0
[22:12:41:624]: Task "Gathering kernel debugger settings" completed successfully

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

then i got a alert: "failed to create process instance prevents debugging" and then nothing happens.

what can i do to debug my driver on target machine?
Thanks a lot!

kimichang
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1 Answers1

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Visual Studio for remote kernel-mode debugging of your own device driver can be a huge pain sometimes; I've seen many experienced kernel-mode engineers stop wasting their time trying to get it to work in the past.

Make sure that you have the same version of Windows Driver Kit (WDK) installed on the Target Machine as you have installed on the Host Machine. Then try again and see if that solves the problem. You also need to make sure that you're signed into the WDK User Account which is automatically created at the start of Target Machine provisioning, as well as Debug Mode being enabled from boot.

If you cannot get it working properly after maximum a week, you may as well not bother wasting your time even further. You can use WinDbg (comes with the Windows Driver Kit as part of Debugging Tools - Visual Studio uses the WinDbg engine for debugging) to remotely debug the kernel of the Target Machine, and you can also use this for setting break-points/analysis of your own device driver. You'll just have to compile your source code and copy across your compiled driver/s to the Target Machine each time manually, which isn't all that bad thanks to shared folder features over a network/virtual machine.

PspSetProcessPpmPolicy
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  • I'm sorry to hear that, I had similar issues when setting up my current development environment. It took me many days of trial and error, and I still don't know what actually got it working for me. I'd say your best bet is to just use WinDbg and you can add the source code files to it, so you can view the source code of the current line for the break-point, etc. – PspSetProcessPpmPolicy Dec 21 '17 at 15:17