Text Mode Debugging

With Windows Server 2003 you can enable text-mode debugging during setup by pressing the F8 key. This means that you do not have to edit the Txtsetup.sif file to enable text-mode debugging.

Enable text-mode debugging during setup

To enable text-mode debugging during setup, press F8 when the Setup program is loading, and then press F8 again when you are prompted to press the F6 function key to install third-party small computer system interface (SCSI) and host controller drivers.

Debug sections that are added to setup

When you press F8 to enable text-mode debugging during Setup, the following default debug options are added to Setup:

/debug /debugport=com2 /baudrate=19200

The computer will send debugging output to COM2 during the text mode portion of setup. If your system has only COM1, you must modify the Txtsetup.sif file for the computer to send debugging output to COM1.

To use debugging, you must have symbols. You must also have a debugger computer that has a debug cable attached.

Note: To use text-mode debugging, the COM2 communications (COM) port must be available on your computer. If COM2 is not available on your computer, and you have to enable text-mode debugging during setup, copy the setup files to your hard disk, edit the Txtsetup.sif file to address COM1, and then run the Setup program from the hard disk. Make the following modifications to the Txtsetup.sif file:

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[SetupData]

OsLoadOptions = "/noguiboot /fastdetect /debug /baudrate=57600 /debugport=com1"

OsLoadOptionsVar = "/fastdetect /debug /baudrate=57600 /debugport=com1"

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Note: If your computer only has COM1, you must modify the Txtsetup.sif file to connect the debugger to COM1.