Setting kernel debugging in Windows 7 with Visual BCD Editor

 

Using BCDEdit kernel debugging can be set on or off on Command Line Interface(admin mode) with:

bcdedit /debug [{ID}] { on | off }

{ID} is optional boot loader id and if not present addresses {current} - the boot loader used for booting the running OS.

 

Using Visual BCD Editor you can enable/disable kernel debugging for a loader by creating the element "KernelDebuggerEnabled" (if not already present) and setting its value to true/false.

VBCDE - debug

 

To specify debugger connection options you can use the elements of {dbgsettings}.

VBCD_dbgsettings

 

 

Visual BCD equivalents for debug settings

 

Using bcdedit you can specify following dbgsettings:

  1. bcdedit /dbgsettings SERIAL [DEBUGPORT:port] [BAUDRATE:baud] [/start startpolicy] [/noumex]
  2. bcdedit /dbgsettings 1394 [CHANNEL:channel] [/start startpolicy] [/noumex]
  3. bcdedit /dbgsettings USB TARGETNAME:targetname [/start startpolicy] [/noumex]
The debugger connection can be either on serial port, on IEEE 1394 (FireWire) or on USB (2.0) port (setting over element "DebuggerType").

Standard is debugger connection on serial port 1 and baud rate 115200.

 

All equvalent Visual BCD debug settings elements are Library type elements:

DEBUGPORT: port

SerialDebuggerPort

SerialDebuggerPortAddress

BAUDRATE: baud

SerialDebuggerBaudRate

CHANNEL: channel

1394DebuggerChannel

TARGETNAME: targetname

UsbDebuggerTargetName

/start startpolicy

DebuggerStartPolicy

/noumex

DebuggerIgnoreUsermodeExceptions

 

Command for USB debug settings and Visual BCD equivalent:

bcdedit /dbgsettings USB TARGETNAME:MyTargetName /start autoenable /noumex

dbgsettings_USB

 

If you want to load/debug a 64-bit driver you can use boolean element "AllowPrereleaseSignatures" which is the eqivalent for

bcd /set testsigning on|off

which enables/disables loading and debugging of 64-bit drivers for the OS loaded by {current}.

The driver has to be signed but you can use any certificate during testing.

 

See Microsoft document Getting Started with Windows Debugging.

 

 

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