Porting the SDK's gdb for 3.1

The gdb on Cydia currently doesn't work on 3.1 because of the new Mach-O format. We could compile gdb from source (which I've failed to do so), wait for someone else to compile from source (which I'm still waiting), or just use the gdb in the SDK.

Update: saurik has updated the gdb package that works in 3.1, which will be available tomorrow. You can download it now from http://apt.saurik.com/debs/gdb_1128-8_iphoneos-arm.deb.

The SDK's gdb is in /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/usr/libexec/gdb/gdb-arm-apple-darwin. While you can run it directly on your Mac, it is in fact a fat binary with 3 architectures:

file gdb-arm-apple-darwin

gdb-arm-apple-darwin: Mach-O universal binary with 3 architectures
gdb-arm-apple-darwin (for architecture ppc): Mach-O executable ppc
gdb-arm-apple-darwin (for architecture i386): Mach-O executable i386
gdb-arm-apple-darwin (for architecture armv5): Mach-O executable arm

The ARMv5 portion is what we want. But this gdb is useless to run on the iPhoneOS because it lacks all the essential entitlements. While entitlements can be inserted using ldid, there is a limitation needs to be worked-around: ldid doesn't support the armv5 architecture. We have to modify the source code of ldid to allow it:

@@ -557,6 +557,7 @@
                     case 12: switch (framework->cpusubtype) {
                         case 0: arch = "arm"; break;
                         case 6: arch = "armv6"; break;
+                        case 7: arch = "armv5"; break;
                         default: arch = NULL; break;
                     } break;

(I have also lipo -thin-ed the gdb before ldid-ing to make everything smooth.) After applying this patch, the ldid should recognize armv5 correctly. Now, save this portion of text as an XML file (e.g. gdb.xml):

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
 <key>com.apple.springboard.debugapplications</key>
 <true/>
 <key>get-task-allow</key>
 <true/>
 <key>task_for_pid-allow</key>
 <true/>
 <key>run-unsigned-code</key>
 <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

and then run:

ldid -Sgdb.xml gdb

, and the gdb should now be completely usable on the iPhoneOS.