ST-LINK gdbserver as external tool

I'm working with an ST-Link v2, and am using the ST modified GDB server that ST provides with Atollic TrueStudio. I'd like to start it before the debugger, unfortunately it's very finnicky. If started in a terminal window it works, but if started from a shell script (the same one that works manually) launched as an external tool in Clion it crashes when Clion tries to connect to it.

Does anyone have any experience with this? It's easy enough to start it manually, but it would be more convenient to have it launched automatically before debugging.