A tip to get Microsoft Debug Symbol
 

Hi all !
I saw many question about how to get debug symbol files from Microsoft Symbol Server at Woodmann forum, and have many answers, but seem too complex to follow.
In the past, I have use Symbol Retriever tool of DriverStudio, but it alway failed, so I should find another way.
Sometime, I use WinDbg to debug, and found it can download the request debug symbol files from Microsoft Symbol Server. After reading WinDbg document and using depends tool, I have collected a small package, can run standlone without need to install whole WinDbg free package (> 10 MB). I attached it here.
The steps:
1. You only need to extract it to a folder, better than if its folder name is placed in the PATH enviroment.
2. You create two folder, C:\Symbols and C:\WinNT\Symbols (or C:\Windows\Symbols on your XP machine). In C:\Winxx\Symbols, you create some subdirectory, name exe, dll, sys, cpl, ...
3. Create a enviroment variable, name: "_NT_SYMBOL_PATH", with value:"%SYSTEMROOT%;%SYSTEMROOT%\system32;SRV*C:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols"
4. At here, you can begin to get debug symbol files by issue command: symchk.exe /v [dllpath/exepath...].
Ex: symchk /v c:\winnt\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
or symchk /v c:\winnt\system32\ntdll.dll
or symchk /v c:\winnt\system32\win32k.sys
If your debug symbol file on your machine is not mach with exe/dll file, or did not exist, the symbol file will be downloaded from Microsoft Symbol server and placed in C:\Symbols directory, at [exe/dllname.pdb/dbg]/[signature]/.
According to debug information in exe/dll file, the pdb file or dbg file or two files will be downloaded.
And you can move .pdb/.dbg file to subdirectory %systemroot%\symbols\...
Ex: ntoskrnl.pdb/.dbg to exe subdir
ntdll.pdb/.dbg to dll subdir
win32k.pdb/.dbg to sys subdir
I use this way on my Win2000 server, use ADSL at work and WinXP Pro, use modem at home. All run well. Everytime I need a debug symbol file, I only need type: symchk /v ....
Hope you will like and enjoy this method. Wait for your idea!
Regards

a piece of cake!
 

Thanks for sharing

Regards

I use driverstudio 3.1 under win2003. But I have never failed on getting symbles using symble retriever. What is your driverstudio and OS version?

I use Symbol Retrieve ver 1.0, DriverStudio 2.7 (I don't have the need to update to DS 3.x). At work, my OS is Win2000 Server, use a HTTP proxy. At home, my OS is WinXP Pro, use Modem.
Regards

I'm using 3.2 and it works fine...perhaps it's worth the upgrade, Microsoft is known to change their internal protocol often.

Best regards,
Alex Ionescu
http://www.relsoft.net

by the way - full set of debug symbols can be found on microsoft's cd with winXP SP2. And for free :)

And you can order it here
for free :D