The extension supports remote debugging netcoreapp 2.1 or newer on linux-arm. The extension has been tested against Raspbian 8 and 9. Please let us know if you run into issues with other distributions.

As of netcoreapp 3.0, linux-arm64 is also supported. When following these instructions for arm64, be sure to replace linux-arm with linux-arm64.

If you run into any problems, please file an issue and note in the text that this is related to linux-arm.

Choose one of the following deployment methods:

• Framework Dependent Deployment: Compile the application locally. Deploy the binary to linux-arm. Requires the .NET Core Runtime to be installed on linux-arm.

• Self Contained Deployment: Compile and publish the application locally. Deploy the standalone application to linux-arm.

See microsoft.com for links to the SDK and instructions.

• Install the native dependencies of .NET Core. On Raspbian, this should only mean installing Curl and unzip if it they aren't already installed (sudo apt-get install curl).
• Run the following command on linux-arm (installs to ~/vsdbg):

curl -sSL https://aka.ms/getvsdbgsh | bash /dev/stdin -r linux-arm -v latest -l ~/vsdbg

Framework-dependent deployments are when the application is deployed without a copy of .NET Core itself, so the application depends on the shared .NET Core Framework being installed. See docs.microsoft.com for more information.

• General prerequisites

• On the target computer, install a linux-arm build of the .NET Core runtime. As of this editing the latest 2.1 version can be found at https://dotnetcli.blob.core.windows.net/dotnet/Runtime/2.1.3/dotnet-runtime-2.1.3-linux-arm.tar.gz. See the arm docker file to find the latest version number.

  Example (installs to ~/dotnet):

  mkdir ~/dotnet & curl -sSL https://dotnetcli.blob.core.windows.net/dotnet/Runtime/2.1.3/dotnet-runtime-2.1.3-linux-arm.tar.gz | 
  tar xvzf /dev/stdin -C ~/dotnet
  

On the IDE computer:

• Run dotnet new console -n MyConsoleApp. This will create a new netcoreapp console application called MyConsoleApp.

On the IDE computer:

• In your application's root folder, run dotnet publish
• Copy all the files under bin/Debug/netcoreapp2.1/publish to your linux-arm device (replace '2.1' with whatever framework you are targeting).
  • To test run your application, on linux-arm, run the entrypoint MyConsoleApp.dll with dotnet.

    $ ~/dotnet/dotnet MyConsoleApp.dll

Reference the sample launch.json below.

• The "program" field is set to the dotnet executable and the first "args" item is the application .dll relative to the current working directory ("cwd") on linux-arm.
• Update the fields under "pipeArgs" to include the IP address of the linux-arm device and the ssh keyfile.
• The "debuggerPath" points to the location where you installed the debugger to on linux-arm.

    {
        "name": ".NET Core Remote Launch - Framework Dependent (console)",
        "type": "coreclr",
        "request": "launch",
        "program": "~/dotnet/dotnet",
        "args": [
            "./MyConsoleApp.dll"
        ],
        "cwd": "~/MyConsoleApp",
        "stopAtEntry": false,
        "console": "internalConsole",
        "pipeTransport": {
            "pipeCwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "pipeProgram": "/usr/bin/ssh",
            "pipeArgs": [
                "-T", "-i", "mysshkeyfile",
                "pi@10.10.10.10"
            ],
            "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
    }

This launch.json requires that PuTTY is installed. You must convert your ssh keyfile to a format that PuTTY understands with puttygen. See How to convert SSH keypairs generated using PuttyGen(Windows) into key-pairs used by ssh-agent and KeyChain(Linux) for tips.

 {
            "name": ".NET Core Remote Launch - Framework Dependent (console)",
            "type": "coreclr",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "~/dotnet/dotnet",
            "args": ["./dotnetapp.dll"],
            "cwd": "~/dotnet-core-app",
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "console": "internalConsole",
            "pipeTransport": {
                "pipeCwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
                "pipeProgram": "c:\\Program Files\\PuTTY\\plink.exe",
                "pipeArgs": [
                    "-i",
                    "mysshkeyfile.ppk",
                    "pi@10.10.10.10"
                ],
                "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
        }

It is likely that other tools than PuTTY can be used. They have not been tested.

We are researching if WSL (ssh) can be used to avoid needing to install PuTTY (or similar tool).

Self-contained deployments are when all of an applications' dependencies are carried with the deployment. So the only thing that must be installed on the target computer is the native dependencies of .NET Core. See docs.microsoft.com for more information.

• General prerequisites

On the IDE computer:

• Run dotnet new console -n MyConsoleApp. This will create a new netcoreapp console application called MyConsoleApp.

On the IDE computer:

• Run dotnet publish -r linux-arm
• Copy all the files under bin/Debug/netcoreapp2.1/linux-arm/publish/ to linux-arm (replace '2.1' with whatever framework you are targeting).
• Test your application by running the standalone executable MyConsoleApp.

  $ ./MyConsoleApp

Reference the sample launch.json below.

• The "program" field is the standalone executable relative to the current working directory ("cwd") on linux-arm.
• Update the fields under "pipeArgs" to include the IP address of the linux-arm device and the ssh keyfile.
• The "debuggerPath" points to the location where you installed the debugger to on linux-arm.

    {
        "name": ".NET Core Remote Launch - Standalone Application (console)",
        "type": "coreclr",
        "request": "launch",
        "program": "MyConsoleApp",
        "args": [],
        "cwd": "~/MyConsoleApp",
        "stopAtEntry": false,
        "console": "internalConsole",
        "pipeTransport": {
            "pipeCwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "pipeProgram": "/usr/bin/ssh",
            "pipeArgs": [
                "-T", "-i", "mysshkeyfile",
                "pi@10.10.10.10"
            ],
            "debuggerPath": "~/vsdbg/vsdbg"
            }
    }

See Framework Dependent sample above for the appropriate pipeTransport section for Windows.