Unable to debug with gdb under Android and NDK, starting Gdb crashes App

Question

I'm having problems trying to debug native code with the Android NDK.

While the App is running I launch ndk-gdb, and the result is that gdb loses the connection with the device and the app on the device crashes.

The very same thing happens with both the Device (Samsung Galaxy 10.1) and the emulator. The host computer is running Mac OS X. The native portion of the app is made of multiple .so libraries, build with ndk-build clean all NDK_DEBUG=1

I've attached the gdb output below.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: Maybe the problem is with the 'cp' command failing? And the empty "Using gdb setup init: " line?

---

$NDK/ndk-gdb --verbose
Android NDK installation path: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/ndk/android-ndk-r7
Using default adb command: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb
ADB version found: Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.29
Using final ADB command: '/Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb'
Using auto-detected project path: /Users/flavio/MacDevel/nTrack/trunk/n-Track_EX/Android/AndroidTesting
Found package name: com.ntrack.ntrack
ABIs targetted by application: armeabi
Device API Level: 12
Device CPU ABIs: armeabi-v7a armeabi
Compatible device ABI: armeabi
Found debuggable flag: false
Found gdbserver under libs/armeabi, assuming app was built with NDK_DEBUG=1
Found device gdbserver: /data/data/com.ntrack.ntrack/lib/gdbserver
Using gdb setup init: 
Using toolchain prefix: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/ndk/android-ndk-r7/toolchains/arm-linux-androideabi-4.4.3/prebuilt/darwin-x86/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-
Using app out directory: ./obj/local/armeabi
Found data directory: '/data/data/com.ntrack.ntrack'
Found running PID: 2302
Launched gdbserver succesfully.
Setup network redirection
## COMMAND: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb forward tcp:5039 localfilesystem:/data/data/com.ntrack.ntrack/debug-socket
## COMMAND: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb shell run-as com.ntrack.ntrack lib/gdbserver +debug-socket --attach 2302
## COMMAND: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb pull /system/bin/app_process ./obj/local/armeabi/app_process
Attached; pid = 2302
Listening on sockaddr socket debug-socket
1269 KB/s (9828 bytes in 0.007s)
Pulled app_process from device/emulator.
## COMMAND: /Users/flavio/Documents/android-sdk-mac_x86/platform-tools/adb pull /system/lib/libc.so ./obj/local/armeabi/libc.so
2988 KB/s (275874 bytes in 0.090s)
Pulled libc.so from device/emulator.
usage: cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvX] source_file target_file
       cp [-R [-H | -L | -P]] [-fi | -n] [-apvX] source_file ... target_directory
GNU gdb 6.6
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "--host=i686-apple-darwin --target=arm-elf-linux".
(no debugging symbols found)
Error while mapping shared library sections:
/system/bin/linker: No such file or directory.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libc.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstdc++.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libm.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
liblog.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libcutils.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libz.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libutils.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libbinder.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libexpat.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libcrypto.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libicuuc.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libicui18n.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libsqlite.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libssl.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstlport.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnativehelper.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnetutils.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libEGL.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libwpa_client.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libhardware_legacy.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libpixelflinger.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libhardware.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libemoji.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libjpeg.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libquramimagecodec.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libskia.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libui.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libGLESv2.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libsurfaceflinger_client.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libgui.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libcamera_client.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libdvm.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libGLESv1_CM.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libETC1.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libsecril-client.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libsisodrm.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libsonivox.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright_foundation.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libmedia.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnfc_ndef.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libusbhost.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libhwui.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libbluedroid.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libdbus.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libandroid_runtime.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libvorbisidec.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright_yuv.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libdrmframework.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright_amrnb_common.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright_enc_common.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright_avc_common.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libstagefright.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libmtp.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libmedia_jni.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libbcc.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libRS.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
librs_jni.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libharfbuzz.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libwebcore.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnvos.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnvrm.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnvrm_channel.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnvddk_2d_v2.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
gralloc.tegra.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnTrackFramework.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnTrackWinOnMac.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnTrackDSPDll.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnTrackNativeControls.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libnTrackEngine.so: Undefined error: 0.
Error while mapping shared library sections:
libgl2jni.so: Undefined error: 0.
warning: Unable to find dynamic linker breakpoint function.
GDB will be unable to debug shared library initializers
and track explicitly loaded dynamic code.
warning: shared library handler failed to enable breakpoint
0xaff0c174 in ?? ()
gdb: Unable to get location for thread creation breakpoint: requested event is not supported
(no debugging symbols found)
gdb: Unable to get location for thread creation breakpoint: requested event is not supported
gdb: Unable to get location for thread creation breakpoint: requested event is not supported
Killing inferior
/Users/flavio/MacDevel/nTrack/trunk/n-Track_EX/Android/AndroidTesting/jni/obj/local/armeabi/gdb.setup:4: Error in sourced command file:
Remote communication error: Connection reset by peer.

Answer 1

I was having this same issue. Turns out the issue was I was executing ndk-gdb in the $PROJECT_DIR/jni folder. Moving up a level and executing from $PROJECT_DIR fixed the disconnecting.