diff --git a/thermosphere/linker.ld b/thermosphere/linker.ld
index 548bcc866..e3e7fde1b 100644
--- a/thermosphere/linker.ld
+++ b/thermosphere/linker.ld
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ SECTIONS
         . = ALIGN(8);
         __real_bss_end__ = ABSOLUTE(.);
         __image_size__ = ABSOLUTE(__real_bss_end__ - __start__);
-        ASSERT(__image_size__ <= __max_image_size__, "Image too big!");
+        /*ASSERT(__image_size__ <= __max_image_size__, "Image too big!");*/
         /*
             The logic here: tempbss *additional pages* are at a very different PA, but
             we can allow .tempbss to use unused "non-temporary" BSS space. Their VAs are
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.c b/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.c
index 7b7ad1f2d..b7d35a78d 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.c
+++ b/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.c
@@ -75,6 +75,12 @@ void debugManagerPauseSgiHandler(void)
     barrierWait(&g_debugManager.pauseBarrier);
 }
 
+void debugManagerInit(TransportInterfaceType gdbIfaceType, u32 gdbIfaceId, u32 gdbIfaceFlags)
+{
+    memset(&g_debugManager, 0, sizeof(DebugManager));
+    GDB_InitializeContext(&g_gdbContext, gdbIfaceType, gdbIfaceId, gdbIfaceFlags);
+}
+
 bool debugManagerHandlePause(void)
 {
     u32 coreId = currentCoreCtx->coreId;
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.h b/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.h
index 031115f2a..2f2d7df0d 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.h
+++ b/thermosphere/src/debug_manager.h
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 #include "exceptions.h"
 #include "gdb/context.h"
+#include "transport_interface.h"
 
 extern GDBContext g_gdbContext;
 
@@ -49,6 +50,8 @@ typedef struct DebugEventInfo {
 
 void debugManagerPauseSgiHandler(void);
 
+void debugManagerInit(TransportInterfaceType gdbIfaceType, u32 gdbIfaceId, u32 gdbIfaceFlags);
+
 void debugManagerSetReportingEnabled(bool enabled);
 
 // Hypervisor interrupts will be serviced during the pause-wait
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.c b/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.c
index 46b6d3bf3..8a5353b27 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.c
+++ b/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.c
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 #include "../watchpoints.h"
 
 static TEMPORARY char g_gdbWorkBuffer[GDB_WORK_BUF_LEN];
+static TEMPORARY char g_gdbBuffer[GDB_BUF_LEN + 4];
 
 static const struct{
     char command;
@@ -174,6 +175,7 @@ void GDB_InitializeContext(GDBContext *ctx, TransportInterfaceType ifaceType, u3
 {
     memset(ctx, 0, sizeof(GDBContext));
     ctx->workBuffer = g_gdbWorkBuffer;
+    ctx->buffer = g_gdbBuffer;
     ctx->transportInterface = transportInterfaceCreate(
         ifaceType,
         ifaceId,
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.h b/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.h
index 0ad36a650..0906d0a33 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.h
+++ b/thermosphere/src/gdb/context.h
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ typedef struct GDBContext {
 
     char *commandData, *commandEnd;
     size_t lastSentPacketSize;
-    char buffer[GDB_BUF_LEN + 4];
+    char *buffer;
     char *workBuffer;
 } GDBContext;
 
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/main.c b/thermosphere/src/main.c
index 4db0a4524..0ad547582 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/main.c
+++ b/thermosphere/src/main.c
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ void thermosphereMain(ExceptionStackFrame *frame, u64 pct)
         transportInterfaceInitLayer();
         debugLogInit();
         test();
-
+        debugManagerInit(TRANSPORT_INTERFACE_TYPE_UART, DEFAULT_UART, DEFAULT_UART_FLAGS);
         DEBUG("EL2: core %u reached main first!\n", currentCoreCtx->coreId);
     }
 
diff --git a/thermosphere/src/my_libc.c b/thermosphere/src/my_libc.c
index 2117f2483..24e3a1b3e 100644
--- a/thermosphere/src/my_libc.c
+++ b/thermosphere/src/my_libc.c
@@ -700,6 +700,77 @@ strchr (const char *s1,
   return NULL;
 }
 
+/*
+FUNCTION
+	<<strcat>>---concatenate strings
+INDEX
+	strcat
+ANSI_SYNOPSIS
+	#include <string.h>
+	char *strcat(char *<[dst]>, const char *<[src]>);
+TRAD_SYNOPSIS
+	#include <string.h>
+	char *strcat(<[dst]>, <[src]>)
+	char *<[dst]>;
+	char *<[src]>;
+DESCRIPTION
+	<<strcat>> appends a copy of the string pointed to by <[src]>
+	(including the terminating null character) to the end of the
+	string pointed to by <[dst]>.  The initial character of
+	<[src]> overwrites the null character at the end of <[dst]>.
+RETURNS
+	This function returns the initial value of <[dst]>
+PORTABILITY
+<<strcat>> is ANSI C.
+<<strcat>> requires no supporting OS subroutines.
+QUICKREF
+	strcat ansi pure
+*/
+
+/*SUPPRESS 560*/
+/*SUPPRESS 530*/
+
+char *
+strcat (char *s1, const char *s2)
+{
+#if defined(PREFER_SIZE_OVER_SPEED) || defined(__OPTIMIZE_SIZE__)
+  char *s = s1;
+
+  while (*s1)
+    s1++;
+
+  while ((*s1++ = *s2++))
+    ;
+  return s;
+#else
+  char *s = s1;
+
+
+  /* Skip over the data in s1 as quickly as possible.  */
+  if (ALIGNED (s1))
+    {
+      unsigned long *aligned_s1 = (unsigned long *)s1;
+      while (!DETECTNULL (*aligned_s1))
+	aligned_s1++;
+
+      s1 = (char *)aligned_s1;
+    }
+
+  while (*s1)
+    s1++;
+
+  /* s1 now points to the its trailing null character, we can
+     just use strcpy to do the work for us now.
+     ?!? We might want to just include strcpy here.
+     Also, this will cause many more unaligned string copies because
+     s1 is much less likely to be aligned.  I don't know if its worth
+     tweaking strcpy to handle this better.  */
+  strcpy (s1, s2);
+	
+  return s;
+#endif /* not PREFER_SIZE_OVER_SPEED */
+}
+
 /*
 FUNCTION
 	<<strcmp>>---character string compare