XenDebugger: A Source Level Kernel Debugger on Xen Virtualization

As the operating system is getting larger and more complex, debugging on OS (Operating System) is difficult and time-consuming. Existing OS debugging tools are not source level kernel debugger. In this paper the XenDebugger is presented as a source level kernel debugger, which is based on Xen virtualization. The debug info will be written into a file when compiling kernel. The XenDebugger uses the Xen interface to run the debugged kernel as guest OS. It decodes the debug info and then set the kernel running step by step. We evaluate the performance to verify its feasibility. The result shows that the XenDebugger is accurately to locate the reason to the problem. The XenDebugger is accepted by Xen community as an open source project.