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What are some of the non-default kernel debug config options that one should add to a standard kernel config?

2.6.x kernels seem to enable debugging support by default but with a basic set of options. I am curious to hear whether there are additional options that should be turned on to aid analysis of kdump vmcores.

software engineer
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LDD3 CHAPTER 4 mentioned many debug configurations, here is the pdf file: http://lwn.net/images/pdf/LDD3/ch04.pdf

I am not sure whether it is helpful for kdump vmcores or not.

Jiang
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  • Thanks, at the moment I am having a real struggle with using the crash utility. I cannot match the function arguments with locations on the stack where they are supposed to be (supposedly the last few items pushed onto the stack before calling the next function). I was wondering whether I was missing kernel config options. For example CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER isn't set by default so I am experimenting with it and whether that will straighten out the locations of function arguments in crash. How bt is supposed to work http://people.redhat.com/anderson/crash_whitepaper/help_pages/bt.html – software engineer Apr 15 '11 at 00:36
  • This article seems to indicate that CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER is important, although it's a really old article from 2003: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-kdbug/#author1 – software engineer Apr 15 '11 at 00:37
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For a slightly more recent list of kernel debugging options than that of LDD3 Chapter 4, see the Fedora Kernel Debugging Strategy page.

Anon
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