DDD / GDB interaction hangs

[Klaus Kusche]

Problem:
1.) Any ddd command which requires interaction with gdb hangs ad 
infinitum and consumes 100 % CPU, mostly in kernel mode.

The trace shows that DDD has sent the set prompt command to GDB and is 
waiting for a response:

GNU DDD 3.3.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 1995-1999 Technische Universit<E4>t Braunschweig, Germany.
Copyright (C) 1999-2001 Universit<E4>t Passau, Germany.

Compiled with GCC 3.1.1, GNU libc 2.2
Requires X11R6, Xt11R6, Motif 2.2.2 (Motif Version 2.2.2)
Includes XPM 3.4.11, Athena Panner, DDD core
Built 2002-09-28 by root <root@10.0.0.141>.
$  ddd
+  /bin/sh -c 'exec gdb -q -fullname'
#  Hello, world!
#  Starting GDB...
#  Running GDB (pid 14197, tty /dev/pts/5)...
#  Current language: C/C++
#  Searching "vsllib/ddd.vsl"...
#  Trying "/home/kk/.ddd/vsllib/ddd.vsl"
#  Trying "/usr/share/ddd-3.3.1/vsllib/ddd.vsl"
#  Searching "vsllib/ddd.vsl"..."/usr/share/ddd-3.3.1/vsllib/ddd.vsl".
<- "(gdb) "
-> "set prompt (gdb) \n"
#  Open Program: waiting until GDB gets ready...

An strace shows that ddd is calling select within a tight loop, and 
select immediately returns that no data is available.

ps and lsof show that the gdb process is alive and connected to the 
pseudo term.

Calling gdb manually and typing "set prompt (gdb)" works.

2.) When leaving ddd, a message says that gdb is still busy. After 
confirming, it takes 2 sec until ddd really terminates. It prints 2 
lines to the starting console:
/bin/sh -c 'exec gdb -q -fullname' [14197]: Terminated
/bin/sh -c 'exec gdb -q -fullname' [14197]: Agent wouldn't die (Terminated)

Version information:
This is on a Gentoo linux system, with the gentoo packages
sys-devel/gcc-3.1.1-r1
dev-util/ddd-3.3.1-r2
sys-libs/glibc-2.2.5-r7
sys-devel/gdb-5.2.1

Thanks in advance for any help!

--
DI. Dr. Klaus Kusche
Email: Klaus.Kusche@inode.at        WWW: http://members.inode.at/kusche
Phone @ home: +43 7234 83894             Phone @ work: +43 732 673368 0
Private address:               Buchenweg 15, A-4100 Ottensheim, Austria
Office address: HTBLA Leonding, Limesstr. 12-14, 4060 Leonding, Austria