Debug Android with GDB.

1. On the device, launch a new command:

gdbserver :5039 /system/bin/executable

or attach to an existing process:

gdbserver :5039 --attach pid

2. On your workstation, forward port 5039 to the device with adb:

adb forward tcp:5039 tcp:5039

3. Start a latest version of gdb that lives in the "prebuilt" area of the source tree: 

prebuild/linux-x86/toolchain/arm-eabi-4.4.3/bin/arm-eabi-gdb out/target/product/generic/symbols/system/bin/executable

4. If you can't find either special version of gdb, run find prebuilt -name arm-eabi-gdb in your source tree to find and run the latest version.

5. In gdb, Tell gdb where to find the shared libraries that will get loaded:

set solib-absolute-prefix /absolute-source-path/out/target/product/generic/symbols
set solib-search-path /absolute-source-path/out/target/product/generic/symbols/system/lib

6. Connect to the device by issuing the gdb command:

target remote :5039

The :5039 tells gdb to connect to the localhost port 5039, which is bridged to the device by adb.

You may need to inspire gdb to load some symbols by typing:

shared