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Enabling NDIS Debug Tracing

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NDIS debug tracing is the primary method for debugging NDIS drivers. When you set up NDIS debug tracing, you are actually enabling one or more levels of DbgPrint statements with NDIS. The resulting information is sufficient for debugging most network driver problems.

Enabling NDIS Debug Tracing By Setting Registry Values

You can enable different levels of debug tracing in various NDIS components by editing the registry. Typically, you should add the following entries and values to the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NDIS\Parameters registry key:

"DebugLevel"=dword:00000000
"DebugSystems"=dword:000030F3
"DebugBreakPoint"=dword:00000001

The following values are acceptable for DebugBreakPoint, DebugLevel and DebugSystems:

DebugBreakPoint
Controls whether an NDIS driver will automatically break into the debugger. If this value is set to 1, NDIS will break into the debugger when a driver enters Ndis.sys's DriverEntry function.

DebugLevel
Selects the level or amount of debug tracing in the NDIS components that you select with the DebugSystems value. The following values specify levels that you can select:

Level Description Value

DBG_LEVEL_INFO

All available debug information. This is the highest level of trace.

0x00000000

DBG_LEVEL_LOG

Log information.

0x00000800

DBG_LEVEL_WARN

Warnings.

0x00001000

DBG_LEVEL_ERR

Errors.

0x00002000

DBG_LEVEL_FATAL

Fatal errors, which can cause the operating system to crash. This is the lowest level of trace.

0x00003000

DebugSystems
Enables debug tracing for specified NDIS components. This corresponds to using the !ndiskd.dbgsystems extension. The following values specify the NDIS components that you can select:

Component Description Value

DBG_COMP_INIT

Handles adapter initialization.

0x00000001

DBG_COMP_CONFIG

Handles adapter configuration.

0x00000002

DBG_COMP_SEND

Handles sending data over the network.

0x00000004

DBG_COMP_RECV

Handles receiving data from the network.

0x00000008

DBG_COMP_PROTOCOL

Handles protocol operations.

0x00000010

DBG_COMP_BIND

Handles binding operations.

0x00000020

DBG_COMP_BUSINFO

Handles bus queries.

0x00000040

DBG_COMP_REG

Handles registry operations.

0x00000080

DBG_COMP_MEMORY

Handles memory management.

0x00000100

DBG_COMP_FILTER

Handles filter operations.

0x00000200

DBG_COMP_REQUEST

Handles requests.

0x00000400

DBG_COMP_WORK_ITEM

Handles work-item operations.

0x00000800

DBG_COMP_PNP

Handles Plug and Play operations.

0x00001000

DBG_COMP_PM

Handles power management operations.

0x00002000

DBG_COMP_OPENREF

Handles operations that open reference objects.

0x00004000

DBG_COMP_LOCKS

Handles locking operations.

0x00008000

DBG_COMP_RESET

Handles resetting operations.

0x00010000

DBG_COMP_WMI

Handles Windows Management Instrumentation operations.

0x00020000

DBG_COMP_CO

Handles Connection-Oriented NDIS.

0x00040000

DBG_COMP_REF

Handles reference operations.

0x00080000

DBG_COMP_ALL

Handles all NDIS components.

0xFFFFFFFF

You can select more than one NDIS component. If more than one component is selected, combine the data values with an OR operator. For example, to select DBG_COMP_PNP, DBG_COMP_PM, DBG_COMP_INIT and DBG_COMP_CONFIG, you would combine the corresponding values (0x1000, 0x2000, 0x1, and 0x2) to obtain the value 0x3003, and then set it in the registry thus:

"DebugSystems"=dword:00003003

Whenever you change registry values for debug tracing, you must restart your computer for the new settings to take effect.