diff --git a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
index 1be727d96f..b38011eac1 100644
--- a/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
+++ b/meta/lib/oeqa/selftest/cases/devtool.py
@@ -3518,10 +3518,11 @@ class DevtoolIdeSdkGccTests(DevtoolIdeSdkTests):
 
         # Start gdbserver on target using the task command (keep the ssh connection open while debugging)
         ssh_gdbserver_cmd = [task_command] + task_args
-        # Fix shell command escaping - remove extra quotes from the last argument
-        # The task_args likely contains a quoted shell command that needs to be unquoted
+        # The tasks.json argument is formatted for an intermediate shell. Strip
+        # its quotes and restore dollar expansions before passing it directly to
+        # SSH via subprocess.
         if len(ssh_gdbserver_cmd) > 0 and ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1].startswith('"') and ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1].endswith('"'):
-            ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1] = ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1][1:-1]  # Remove surrounding quotes
+            ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1] = ssh_gdbserver_cmd[-1][1:-1].replace('\\$', '$')  # Remove surrounding quotes
         self.logger.debug(f"Starting gdbserver with command: {' '.join(ssh_gdbserver_cmd)}")
         with RunCmdBackground(ssh_gdbserver_cmd, output_log=self._cmd_logger):
             # Give gdbserver a moment to start