Is an USB Link Cable (USB2USB) usable for kernel debugging in Linux

Question

I've never before used any USB-Link Cable for debugging the Linux Kernel, now my question:

1. Are these Cables (except the USB-2-Serial) usable for Linux Kernel debugging. I've had some problems to setup the Link Cable into a 8.5 Debian;
2. What can I use for Linux Kernel Debugging if the Target is a Notebook (!!) which has NO native Serial Port. So far I know the drivers for eg USB3, the mods are loaded very lately
3. Could you please give the whole installation procedures (because of the drivers) for getting both above Questions working. USB Link cable is a prolific one, the USB Serial is aPL230xx which is working on

There serial one is working perfectly and the currently target is an Pc Tower with native Serial Ports

Answer 1

You can use an USB serial dongle connected to the target if the target has no native serial part, see e.g. here:

enable USB serial support as a kernel build configuration:

CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_USB_SERIAL=y

and enable the appropriate driver, e.g.:

CONFIG_USB_SERIAL_PL2303=y

and boot this kernel with

console=ttyUSB0,9600n8

It works exactly in the same way as if the target had a native serial port.

As for USB2USB cables, there's a number of different ones, and to my knowledge they mostly implement some sort of network adapter. As far is I know, there's no support in the kernel to use this for debugging.