ARM DS-5 Using ARM Streamline Version 5.8
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Setting up an ARM Linux target

These instructions are specific to targets running ARM Linux.

Note

You can locate all of the files provided by DS-5 by selecting Help → ARM Extras... from the main menu.

Show/hidePrerequisites

You must have the following tools on your host to build the Linux kernel and the gator driver:

  • Linux kernel source code for the target platform. Streamline supports only Linux kernel versions 2.6.32 and above.

  • Either the cross compiler for building the Linux kernel or the ARM Linux GCC that comes with DS-5.

Note

Streamline only supports hardware targets, not Real Time System Models (RTSMs). Streamline can run on an RTSM, but an RTSM does not provide the cycle and timing information to make the samples-generated data in the reports meaningful.

Show/hideLoad the gator daemon

The gator daemon and driver collect target metrics and then send them to your host machine.

To enable profiling, you must load the gator daemon on your target. To do this you can either:

  • Locate the pre-built .../gator/linux/gatord and copy it to your desired directory on the host.

  • Build the gator daemon from the source archive:

    1. Locate the .../gator/daemon-src/gator-daemon.tar.gz archive and copy it to your host.

    2. Enter the following commands in the directory in which you copied the gator-daemon.tar.gz archive:

      tar xzf gator-daemon.tar.gzcd gator-daemon make

    3. Move the newly created gatord to your desired directory on the host.

Show/hidePrepare and build your kernel

To prepare your kernel for use with Streamline, download the desired version of the Linux kernel, configure it to your target platform, customize it, and then build it. To do so, follow these steps.

  1. Download your desired version of the Linux kernel. For example:

    wget http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/linux-2.6.35.7.tar.bz2

  2. Unzip the Linux kernel. For example, enter the following command:

    tar xjf linux-2.6.35.7.tar.bz2

  3. Navigate to the root source directory of the Linux kernel. For example, enter the following command:

    cd linux-2.6.35.7

  4. Enter the following command in your shell to export the cross compiler:

    export CROSS_COMPILE=${CROSS_TOOLS}/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabi-

  5. To specify that this build is for an ARM architecture, enter the following command in your shell:

    export ARCH=arm

  6. Enter the following to build the configuration file specific to your platform:

    make platform_defconfig

    Replace platform_defconfig in the command with one of the configuration files located in the your_kernel/arch/arm/configs directory appropriate for your platform or with a configuration file provided by a vendor.

  7. To configure menus, enter the following in your shell:

    make menuconfig

    You must enable certain kernel configuration options to run Streamline. The location of some of these options depends on your kernel version:

    General Setup

    Enable the Profiling Support option.

    Kernel Hacking

    Enable the Trace process context switches option.

    Kernel Features

    Enable the High Resolution Timer Support option.

    Note

    The Trace context switches and events option is not be visible if you have other Tracers configuration options enabled. Enabling other Tracers configuration options is sufficient to turn on context switches and events and run Streamline.

  8. Use the following command to build the image:

    make -j5 uImage

Show/hideBuild the gator module

To use Streamline with your ARM target, you must build the gator driver, gator.ko, and place it in the same directory as the gator daemon, gatord, on the target file system.

DS-5 provides a gator-driver.tar.gz source archive. Assuming that you have unzipped the file and that you have all of the required tools for building kernel modules, enter the following command on your target to create the gator.ko module:

make -C kernel_build_dir M=`pwd` ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=<...> modules

Show/hideRun the gator daemon on your target

When all of the necessary files are in place, you can start the gator daemon.

To run gatord:

  1. Load the kernel onto the target

  2. Copy gatord and gator.ko into the file system on the target. gatord is located in .../gator/linux/ on your host. gatord must be placed in the same directory as gator.ko on the target.

    Note

    If you are going to capture data on a target running Android, use the version of gatord that is located in the android folder .../gator/android/

  3. To ensure gatord has execute permission, enter the following command:

    chmod +x gatord

  4. After making sure that you have root privileges, enter the following to execute the gator daemon:

    ./gatord &

By default, gatord uses port 8080 for communication with the host, but you can adjust this by launching gatord with the port number as a parameter and changing the Port option in the Capture Options dialog box. For example:

./gatord 5050 &

To open the Capture Options dialog box, click Change capture options in the ARM Streamline Data view.

Show/hideSee also

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Home > Setting Up Your Target > Setting up an ARM Linux target