Debug adapter process has terminated unexpectedly (read error)

Type: Debugger
Input information below

Please review existing issues and our documentation at https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode-cpptools/tree/master/Documentation prior to filing an issue.

Describe the bug

• OS and Version: Windows 10 (1803)
• VS Code Version: 1.29.1
• C/C++ Extension Version: 0.20.1
• Other extensions you installed (and if the issue persists after disabling them):
  None
• A clear and concise description of what the bug is.
  Trying to start debug session by pressing F5 I get the following error:
  

To Reproduce
Please include a code sample and launch.json configuration.
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

• Open workspace with .c/.cpp file with 'int main(void) { }'
• click F5

Additional context
If applicable, please include logging by adding "logging": { "engineLogging": true, "trace": true, "traceResponse": true } in your launch.json
Add any other context about the problem here including log or error messages in your Debug Console or Output windows.
Added the json above but not sure where the logs are generated, nothing came out in output or problems window

I'm trying to debug a code running on an ARM processor using OpenOCD, this used to work before but now it is not working. I see no extra info beside this error message above.
Tried different things as other related issue mention: reboot vscode, uninstall and install, fresh install of extension and cleaning cache, all same error message.

my launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "debug test",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "windows": {
                "miDebuggerPath": "arm-none-eabi-gdb.exe"
            },
            "targetArchitecture": "arm",
            "program": "C:/tmp/test/bin/app.elf",
            "setupCommands": [
                { "text": "file C:/tmp/test/app.elf" },
                { "text": "set remotetimeout 30" },
                { "text": "target remote localhost:50250" },
                { "text": "monitor halt" },
                { "text": "monitor reset init" },
                { "text": "load" },
                { "text": "info target" }
            ],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "cwd": "C:/tmp/test"
        }
    ]
}