RPi2: Work in progress 1

Here’s a quick status update on working with Raspberry Pi gen 2. The installed operating system is Raspbian Wheezy 3.18.7-v7+ built on 16 February 2015.

I’m happy to report that I could profile programs using PERF software events. I’m disappointed to report that PERF does not recognize any hardware (performance counter) events. This distro has Linux-tools-3.2 installed. I uninstalled 3.2 and installed 3.18 which matches the kernel:

sudo apt-get remove Linux-tools-3.2
sudo apt-get install Linux-tools-3.18

Still no joy when attempting to use hardware events. If you want to profile your program using PERF software events, please see my current PERF tutorial about finding execution hot-spots. I tried all of the commands and, with the exception of one typo, everything still works!

I’m in the process of troubleshooting my loadable kernel module for user-space performance counter events. I’ve encountered many of the same old stumbling blocks (e.g., finding the correct headers and Module.symvers file). At the present time, the kernel will attempt to load the module, then die. I cannot tell at this stage if there is a problem in the module itself or if there is a bug in Raspbian Wheezy. In case you want to dive into module development yourself, I’ve started a permanent page for building kernel modules on RPi2.

Once again, after two+ years, I want to make a public plea for more open information about the underlying hardware and for guidance and support for end-user device driver development. Quite frankly, Broadcom plays this situation too close to the chest, especially for a computer that’s advertised as a vehicle for learning and education. The dearth of information is stifling. People still struggle to identify and download essential information (e.g., Module.symvers) for device driver development. This is not true of other major Linux distros and the Raspbian folks really need to take note! Broadcom, in particular, runs the risk of killing off the goose laying the golden eggs.

Before signing off, here is a quick PERF command cheat sheet. I recommend reading the tutorial, but if you really must peck away at the keyboard… All the best!

perf help
perf list
perf stat -e cpu-clock ./program
perf record -e cpu-clock ./program
perf record -e cpu-clock,faults .program
perf report
perf report --stdio --sort comm,dso --header
perf report --stdio --dsos=program,libc-2.13.so
perf annotate --stdio --dsos=program --symbol=function
perf annotate --stdio --dsos=program --symbol=function --no-source
perf record -e cpu-clock --freq=8000 ./program
perf evlist -F

Replace “program” with the name of your application program and replace “function” with the name of a function in your program.