ROS 2 Application Remote Debugging

This section describes how to remotely debug ROS 2 applications on the Renesas RZ/V2H RDK platform by using GDB.

It covers the required setup, the debugging workflow, and practical notes for running a remote debugging session from VS Code.

Note

Before proceeding, make sure you have completed the previous sections for cross-compilation, deployment, and VS Code workspace configuration.

Prerequisites

  1. Complete the Cross compilation environment setup section.

    Make sure VS Code is configured with the required extensions and workspace settings for ROS 2 development, and that the application has been successfully deployed to the RZ/V2H RDK platform.

  2. Make sure the required variables in settings.json are configured correctly, especially: TARGET_IP

  3. Ensure that all runtime dependencies required by the application are installed on the target device.

  4. Install gdbserver on the RZ/V2H RDK platform if it is not already available:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdbserver

Debugging Workflow

  1. Before starting the debugging workflow, open settings.json and make sure the required variables are configured correctly for the mode you want to use.

    • For debugging with ros2 run, set:

      • TARGET_IP

      • NODE_PACKAGE_NAME

      • NODE_EXECUTABLE_NAME

    • For debugging with ros2 launch, set:

      • TARGET_IP

      • LAUNCH_PACKAGE_NAME

      • LAUNCH_FILE_NAME

      • NODE_PACKAGE_NAME

      • NODE_EXECUTABLE_NAME

  2. Open the Run and Debug view in VS Code:

    • Press Ctrl+Shift+D.

    • Select the appropriate debug configuration:

      • GDB for ROS2 Run to debug an application started with ros2 run

      • GDB for ROS2 Launch to debug an application started with ros2 launch

    • If prompted, enter any required runtime arguments, such as ROS 2 parameters.

  3. Start the corresponding VS Code task to begin the remote debugging session.

    • For ROS2: Debug Run (GDB), the following command is executed on the target device:

      ros2 run --prefix 'gdbserver localhost:<debug_port>' <package_name> <executable_name>

    • For ROS2: Debug Launch (GDB), the following command is executed on the target device:

      ros2 launch --launch-prefix 'gdbserver localhost:<debug_port>' --launch-prefix-filter '<executable_name>' <launch_package_name> <launch_file_name>

Note

The current debug task already performs a debug build before starting the session. Therefore, you do not need to run the build step manually.