This work discusses some challenges of real-time debugging which have not yet been addressed adequately. A debugging environment is proposed which addresses the problem of time distortion during debugging. In this environment, the notion of real time is replaced by virtual time based on the estimated number of elapsed processor cycles. The first implementation step has been completed and provides the elapsed time based on instruction cache simulation at any breakpoint during debugging. This time information can be used for deadline monitoring, identifying the task which first misses a deadline, and locating time-consuming code portions to support hand-tuning of tasks until a schedule becomes feasible. To provide this timing information, the execution speed of the application during debugging is 1-4 times slower in average than the speed of the corresponding unoptimized application. In contrast, conventional hardware simulators may provide the same information but are less portable and much slower. The environment facilitates the debugging of real-time programs when timing-related problems occur which have to be reproduced during debugging.