Starting an adb session

In the examples throughout this book, we will often show portions of an adb session already in progress, so let's quickly review how to start the adb session. The technique and syntax are the same for both Solaris 1 and Solaris 2 systems.

If you have a set of savecore files to work with, move them to a system that has the same kernel architecture and operating system release running on it. Once done, use the cd command to change to the directory where the savecore files are located, then start up adb with the general syntax:

 adb -k  unixfile corefile  

As an example, on a Solaris 1 crash, looking at crash sequence number 3, the command would be:

 Hiya...  adb -k vmunix.3 vmcore.3  physmem 3f98 

On a Solaris 2 crash, looking at crash number 3, the command would be:

 Hiya...  adb -k unix.3 vmcore.3  physmem 3f98 

In both cases, adb returns the number of pages of physical memory in hexadecimal and then waits for your first command. Note that most versions of adb do not offer the user any prompt at this point. Don't be fooled by this!