Implementation of an open source JTAG debugging development chain for the BeagleBoard ARM® Cortex A-8

The BeagleBoard-xM, manufactured by Texas Instruments, is a small, low cost, open source development platform for the ARM® Cortex-A8 processor. This paper implements a hardware and software combination to connect to the ARM® processor via a JTAG connection for debugging. A FlySwatter interface board is utilized to connect the JTAG port to a host computer and a combination of software tools are implemented to demonstrate the capability for debugging the Linux kernel. The necessary files for booting the Linux 3.0 kernel were compiled and loaded on the BeagleBoard-xM and the host computer. Installation and selection of the components that make up the software tool chain are described. All the hardware and software used for this project are open source designs.