These instructions are deliberately very basic. If you want something clever, go read the real docs ;-) Please don't add more stuff, but feel free to correct my mistakes ;-) (mbligh@aracnet.com) Thanks to John Levon, Dave Hansen, et al. for help writing this. is the thing you're trying to measure. Make sure you have the correct System.map / vmlinux referenced! IMHO it's easier to use "make install" for linux and hack /sbin/installkernel to copy config files, system.map, vmlinux to /boot. Readprofile ----------- You need a fixed readprofile command for 2.5 ... either get hold of a current version from: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/ or get readprofile binary fixed for 2.5 / akpm's 2.5 patch from ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/mbligh/tools/readprofile/ Add "profile=2" to the kernel command line. clear readprofile -r dump output readprofile -m /boot/System.map > captured_profile Oprofile -------- get source (I use 0.5) from http://oprofile.sourceforge.net/ add "idle=poll" to the kernel command line Configure with CONFIG_PROFILING=y and CONFIG_OPROFILE=y & reboot on new kernel ./configure --with-kernel-support make install One time setup (pick appropriate one for your CPU): P3 opcontrol --setup --vmlinux=/boot/vmlinux \ --ctr0-event=CPU_CLK_UNHALTED --ctr0-count=100000 Athlon/x86-64 opcontrol --setup --vmlinux=/boot/vmlinux \ --ctr0-event=RETIRED_INSNS --ctr0-count=100000 P4 opcontrol --setup --vmlinux=/boot/vmlinux \ --ctr0-event=GLOBAL_POWER_EVENTS \ --ctr0-unit-mask=1 --ctr0-count=100000 start daemon opcontrol --start-daemon clear opcontrol --reset start opcontrol --start stop opcontrol --stop dump output oprofpp -dl -i /boot/vmlinux > output_file