Windbg symbol error - windbg

Question

I'm attempting to debug an application using WinDbg. The server doesn't have internet access, so I can't use the Microsoft Symbol server. I went ahead and downloaded the symbols for Server 2012 R2 Retail. Moved them over to the server, and installed to C:\Symbols.
When I attempt to run the debugger, I get the following output.
CommandLine: C:\actionsync\ActionSync\ActionSync.exe
************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
Deferred srv*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
Deferred .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Executable search path is: srv*
DBGHELP: SharedUserData - virtual symbol module
ModLoad: 00ec0000 00ecc000 ActionSync.exe
ModLoad: 77120000 7728f000 ntdll.dll
ModLoad: 6fc30000 6fc86000 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\MSCOREE.DLL
ModLoad: 74de0000 74f20000 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KERNEL32.dll
ModLoad: 74f20000 74ff7000 C:\Windows\SysWOW64\KERNELBASE.dll
(1054.478): Break instruction exception - code 80000003 (first chance)
DBGHELP: Invalid path: '.sympath srv*c:\symbols*'
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll -
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols
eax=00000000 ebx=00000000 ecx=7fdc0000 edx=00000000 esi=7ee16000 edi=00000000
eip=771d3c7d esp=0104f2f4 ebp=0104f320 iopl=0 nv up ei pl zr na pe nc
cs=0023 ss=002b ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00000246
ntdll!LdrInitShimEngineDynamic+0x6dd:
771d3c7d cc int 3
I am completely new to using WinDbg. Additionally, I cannot install VS on this machine.
As far as I know, I have everything setup correctly, but I'm still not able to debug this application.
Any help would be appreciated.
EDIT 1:
I updated the symbol path based on Thomas Weller's Comment
Here is the output
0:000> .sympath
Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Expanded Symbol search path is: .sympath srv*c:\symbols*
************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
Deferred .sympath srv*c:\Symbols*
Error: Change all symbol paths attempts to access '.sympath c:\symbols' failed: 0x7b - The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
Error 16 .sympath c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: .sympath c:\symbols
0:000> .reload
Reloading current modules
.....
DBGHELP: Invalid path: '.sympath c:\symbols'
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll -
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols
************* Symbol Loading Error Summary **************
Module name Error
ntdll All symbol search paths were invalid
Please check your symbol search path.
The following location did not respond and were excluded during symbol loading:
.sympath c:\symbols
EDIT 2:
So, it appears that the sympath is case sensitive.
I updated the sympath C:\Symbols
This is the output.
************* Symbol Path validation summary **************
Response Time (ms) Location
OK c:\Symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: c:\symbols
DBGHELP: Symbol Search Path: c:\symbols
0:000> .reload
Reloading current modules
.....
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: c:\symbols\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\wntdll.pdb - file not found
DBGHELP: wntdll.pdb - file not found
*** ERROR: Symbol file could not be found. Defaulted to export symbols for ntdll.dll -
DBGHELP: ntdll - export symbols
************* Symbol Loading Error Summary **************
Module name Error
ntdll PDB not found : c:\symbols\symbols\dll\wntdll.pdb
Unable to locate the .pdb file in this location

Answer 1

For both solutions, you need a copy of WinDbg (not neccesarily an installation). You find symchk in the WinDbg folder.
Solution for a specific dump / specific debug session
On the machine where you're debugging, create crash dump file with .dump. Skip this step if you already have a crash dump file.
At a command prompt, create a manifest file, i.e. a file that contains information about the symbols to be downloaded
symchk /id <dumpfile>.dmp /om D:\symbols.manifest
/id is for input = dump
/om is for output = manifest
Transfer that manifest file onto a machine with Internet access.
On the Internet machine then run
symchk /im X:\symbols.manifest /s srv*X:\downloadedsymbols\*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols /od
at the command prompt.
/im is for input = manifest
/od is for output details (like verbose)
Transfer the symbols back to the machine without Internet access. Copy them into a new folder, e.g. c:\downloadedsymbols, not c:\symbols . Don't use an existing symbol path, because the n-tier-layout might not match.
Open the crash dump in WinDbg.
Fix the symbols
.sympath C:\downloadedsymbols
and maybe
.reload /f
Solution for retrieving all symbols of the machine without Internet
Note: this process may take really long, since it may download thousands of symbols
At a command prompt, run
symchk /r /if %windir% /om D:\windir.manifest
/r is for recursive
/if is for input = files
/om is for output = manifest
Transfer that manifest file onto a different machine with Internet access.
On the Internet machine, run
symchk /im X:\windir.manifest /s srv*X:\winsymbols\*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols /od
/im is for input = manifest
/od is for output details (like verbose)
Transfer the symbols back to the machine without Internet access. Copy them into a new folder, e.g. c:\winsymbols, not c:\symbols . Don't use an existing symbol path, because the n-tier-layout might not match.
Use the symbols with
.sympath C:\winsymbols
.reload