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Enable the debug messages

Debug messages can be very helpful for developing or debugging applications. The debug messages provided by Windows CE are normally not visible. There are two ways to get to these messages:

  • Use a serial port and a terminal (all BSP versions)
  • Use the Debug Message Buffer feature of Windows CE (PXA only and BSP 4.1 and higher)

Debug Messages over Serial

You can enable debug messages over the serial port. Using the serial port for debug messages slows down the system. It's not recommended to use the debug serial port for large amount of debug data.
To enable the debug messages over serial please follow the steps mentioned below:

  1. Enter the Bootloader Menu
  2. In the bootloader, type:
    X
    set dbg.serial = 1 // 0: disable, 1: enable
    save dbg
  3. Restart the system

The debug messages are now sent out through the serial port and can be monitored running a terminal application on the PC.


Instead of using the bootloader commands above, the [ConfigBlock Editor](/windows-ce/knowledge-base/config-block#config-block-editor) can be used to make the setting.
caution

Enabling debug messages will make the serial port unavailable for the operating system.



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