Use IDAPython to automatically attach to a remote GDB server

Question

I would like to automate the process of connecting to a remote debug server.

The following code worked for the remote win32 debugger:

from ida_dbg import *

set_remote_debugger(addr, port)
load_debugger('win32', True)
attach_process(pid, -1)

However, I found no way to do the same for GDB, as load_debugger('gdb', True) causes IDA to crash with the error "no IP/PC register found". Update: The load_debugger approach does work, but only when there is already an open file.

Thanks.