Debugging bootloader with gdb in qemu

Question

There seems to be a problem with the Freedos bootloader. (It appears that the bootcode can\'t find the kernel in certain circumstances.)

So I\'m trying to debug the

Answer 1

Works fine here using qemu 1.3 and gdb 7.3.50.20111117 (you didn't say what versions you used). I was able to single step tons of instructions until I got bored and placed a breakpoint to catch the bootloader:

(gdb) br *0x7c00
Breakpoint 1 at 0x7c00
(gdb) c
Continuing.

Breakpoint 1, 0x00007c00 in ?? ()
(gdb) x/i $eip
=> 0x7c00:      jmp    0x7c3e

Note that I have set gdb to 16 bit mode first using set architecture i8086.