I posted about this a few days ago, here’s a follow up:
I got a new MacBook Pro (Early 2011) and want to use it as a WinDBG host through Firewire.
So I installed Windows 7 64-bit and booted into it (not through a VM).
I then installed WinDBG and ran it as an Admin so that it can install the 1394 (Firewire) driver.
This failed with a dialog:
Device driver software was not successfully installed
Unidentified Device No driver found
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Wow, never mind… I got the driver installation failure, but then I tried again and it worked, I was able to connect to the target machine.
So here it is, for anyone searching for this info in the future (I know I could not find it):
You can use WinDBG on an Early 2011 (Thunderbolt) MacBook Pro as a host machine to do Firewire (1394) debugging.
Bullheaded persistence. Sometimes the wall you’ve been banging your head against does fall down. 
I assume you were using Boot Camp to boot to Windows 7? Though I doubt it has much significance when booting to Windows, but have you installed Lion?
Gary Little
On Aug 10, 2011, at 8:58 AM, xxxxx@kirsch.com.mx wrote:
Wow, never mind… I got the driver installation failure, but then I tried again and it worked, I was able to connect to the target machine.
So here it is, for anyone searching for this info in the future (I know I could not find it):
You can use WinDBG on an Early 2011 (Thunderbolt) MacBook Pro as a host machine to do Firewire (1394) debugging.
WINDBG is sponsored by OSR
For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminarsTo unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
Yeah, the machine is new so it shipped with Lion. I really like it, especially the trackpad gestures.
As a follow up… I tried using WinDBG from inside VMWare inside Lion. I didn’t expect it to work but gave it a shot. It does not work:
Could not start kernel debugging using 1394:channel=62 parameters, Wind32 error 0n2
The system cannot find the file specified.
Nice to know WinDbg will use the Thunderbolt port on a Mac when running Win7. I do like my MacBook Air, though real estate is a bit sparse for both Windows and Mac development environments when your online storage is an immutable 256GB. (God, I do remember when 256 MEG seemed like all one would ever need)
Gary G. Little
----- Original Message -----
From: xxxxx@kirsch.com.mx
To: “Kernel Debugging Interest List”
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 9:39:47 AM
Subject: RE:[windbg] WinDBG on a MacBook Pro
Yeah, the machine is new so it shipped with Lion. I really like it, especially the trackpad gestures.
As a follow up… I tried using WinDBG from inside VMWare inside Lion. I didn’t expect it to work but gave it a shot. It does not work:
Could not start kernel debugging using 1394:channel=62 parameters, Wind32 error 0n2
The system cannot find the file specified.
—
WINDBG is sponsored by OSR
For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars
To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
Gary,
To clarify, I have a new MacBook Pro, the one that comes with the Thunderbolt port. However, I am debugging through the Firewire 800 port, using an adapter. The target machine has a Firewire 400 PCI card.
I’d be interested to hear if anyone can do this through the Thunderbolt port. But as far as I know, the only Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter available today is through Apple’s Thunderbolt Display.
Marcos