Starting MDB

Now, run mdb on the crash dump you created, and check its status:

$ mdb unix.1 vmcore.1
Loading modules: [ unix krtld genunix ip nfs ipc ]
> ::status
debugging crash dump vmcore.1 (32-bit) from testsystem
operating system: 5.10 Generic (sun4u)
panic message: forced crash dump initiated at user request

In the examples presented in this guide, a crash dump from a 32-bit kernel is used. All of the techniques presented here are applicable to a 64-bit kernel, and care has been taken to distinguish pointers (sized differently on 32- and 64-bit systems) from fixed-sized quantities, which are invariant with respect to the kernel data model.

An UltraSPARC workstation was used to generate the example presented. Your results can vary depending on the architecture and model of system you use.