This is a short introduction to MDB for the Illumos kernel.  Everything we do here is easier and more straight forward to do with DTrace, but that is normal for such a simple example.  We cover how to attach the debugger to a running kernel, set breakpoints and step through the kernel side of an ioctl() call.

To begin with, we will set up serial console for use in VirtualBox on a Windows host, and connect to it with Putty.  You can skip this part if you already have console access to your Illumos box.

Continue reading Illumos: Getting Started with MDB →