Enabling OpenBMC Debug

[Wiktor Gołgowski]

On 2/11/20 6:58 PM, Joseph Reynolds wrote:
> On 2/11/20 9:51 AM, Andrew Geissler wrote:
>> I find myself running a lot of different commands to enable a variety of
>> debug data on OpenBMC when debugging different issues (usually BIOS
>> communication issues). I also end up giving these commands to a lot of people
>> when recreating issues for me. Stuff like this:
>>
>> # enable debug logs in journal
>> sed -i 's/info/debug/' /lib/systemd/journald.conf.d/journald-maxlevel-policy.conf
>> systemctl restart systemd-journald.service
>>
>> # Enable BIOS communication service debug
>> sed -i 's/mboxd/mboxd -vv/' /lib/systemd/system/mboxd.service
>> sed -i 's/btbridged/btbridged --vv/' /lib/systemd/system/org.openbmc.HostIpmi.service
>> sed -i 's/ipmid/ipmid -d 0xff/'  /lib/systemd/system/phosphor-ipmi-host.service
>> sed -i 's/0/1/' /etc/default/pldmd
>> systemctl daemon-reload
>> systemctl restart mboxd.service
>> systemctl restart org.openbmc.HostIpmi.service
>> systemctl restart phosphor-ipmi-host.service
>> systemctl restart pldmd.service
>>
>> I was contemplating wrapping the above stuff in a obmcutil command so instead
>> of telling people to do all of the above (and dealing with situations when
>> those commands change), I could say something like run "obmcutil debugon".
>>
>> Any thoughts out there? Would finer granularity of the debug be useful?
>> Are there other forms of debug people would like enabled?
> 
> Thank you for the information.  I keep learning all the time.
> 
> These settings factor into service scenarios and also deployment readiness.  For example:
> - I want to turn off debug.  For example, I want a debug-off command.
> - I would want a way to validate (or at least show) these settings when testing firmware image release candidates.  For example, another obmcutil command "debug-show" which uses "grep -H" instead of "sed".
> - I would want some documentation added the BMC administrator's guide to make them aware of OpenBMC debug support.  Draft: The obmcutil command can control debug settings for a variety of the components running on the BMC.  For more information, see https://github.com/openbmc/phosphor-state-manager/blob/master/obmcutil
> 
> The obmcutil tool is a shell script, so folks can take just the pieces they need.  That is, don't be more granular at this time.

Could we consider some sort of debug hooks directory (Like /etc/obmc-debug-hooks.d/) where applications could drop in their relevant scripts? 
Or is this going too far?

- Wiktor

> 
> In summary, it seems like a good idea.  It seems like we should ask our service architects to weight in.  I'll go ask mine....
> 
> - Joseph
> 
>>
>> Andrew
>