kernel serial debugging question

[Stephane Charette]

Background:
-----------

In the past, I have had to use the kernel serial debugger with the
2.2.14 kernel.

The steps I followed (if my notes are correct) were:

- in "make menuconfig", within "<Kernel Hacking>", select "<Kernel
support for GDB>"
- pass the additional options "gdb gdbttyS=1 gdbbaud=115200" to loadlin
- wait for the message "Waiting for connection from remote gdb on
ttyS1"

My question:
------------

Has any of this changed with the 2.4.x kernel?  I'm currently playing
with 2.4.19-pre9.  Is there a "serial debugger" patch that has to be
applied first, or is this support normally built-in?

The reason I ask is because I don't see the option "Kernel support for
GDB", which leads me to think that maybe this functionality actually
came from a patch that was applied on top of 2.2.14.

While I'm at it:  is there a "better", or perhaps a "more popular"
method of debugging the kernel?

Thanks,

Stephane Charette