How to achieve Real-time RTOS Status Monitoring in VSCode (without manual pausing)?

[waver]

Current Setup:

• MCU: STM32H7 with FreeRTOS

• Toolchain: VSCode + STM32 VS Code Extension + ST-Link

The Problem: Currently, the STM32Cube RTOS panel and the RTOS STATE view only update when the debug session is paused. When the CPU is running, the RTOS table either shows "No RTOS detected" or is filled with ??? and 0x????????.

For a complex H7 project with LwIP and multiple tasks, I need to monitor stack usage (especially EthIf which has hit 0B free stack) and task states in real-time to catch the exact moment of a crash that occurs after 1 hour of operation.

Questions for the Community:

1. VSCode Limitation: Is there any hidden setting in the official STM32 VS Code Extension to enable automatic/live refreshing of the RTOS thread table while the CPU is running?

2. Alternative Extensions: Are there any 3rd-party VSCode extensions (e.g., Cortex-Debug with specific RTOS scripts) that support live RTOS kernel awareness better than the official one?

3. Alternative IDEs: If VSCode cannot do this, which IDE (Keil, STM32CubeIDE, IAR, etc.) provides the most stable "Live RTOS Monitoring" experience for FreeRTOS? (e.g., Keil's Event Recorder or CubeIDE's Live Expressions equivalent for tasks).

4. Hardware-based solutions: Would switching to a debugger that supports Trace/SWO (Asynchronous Trace) allow for real-time task switching visualization without hitting breakpoints?

[Florent V]

Hi @waver,

Indeed, our RTOS view only updates when the project is paused.
Unfortunately, our current solution does not support real-time task monitoring. (Implementing this would require using a second GDB client to perform polling while the target is running, which is not yet implemented.)

 

Kind Regards,
/Flo