Rebuild and Install Module i915 for GPU Analysis on Ubuntu*

Intel® VTune™ Profiler

User Guide

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ID 766319

Date 5/02/2025

Version

Public

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Rebuild and Install Module i915 for GPU Analysis on Ubuntu*

To collect i915 ftrace events required to analyze the GPU utilization, your Linux kernel should be properly configured. If the Intel® VTune™ Profiler cannot start an analysis and provides an error message: Collection of GPU usage events cannot be enabled. i915 ftrace events are not available. You need to rebuild and install the re-configured module i915. For example, for kernel 4.14 and higher, these settings should be enabled: CONFIG_EXPERT=y and CONFIG_DRM_I915_LOW_LEVEL_TRACEPOINTS=y.

If you update the kernel often, make sure to build the special kernel for GPU analysis.

On Ubuntu* systems, if you update the kernel rarely, you can configure and rebuild only module i915 as follows:

NOTE:

Installing the kernel requires root permissions.

Add source package repositories for your Ubuntu* version.
For example, on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver* add:
```
sudo add-apt-repository -s "deb http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic main restricted"
```

Install build dependencies:

sudo apt -y build-dep linux linux-image-$(uname -r)
sudo apt -y install libncurses-dev flex bison openssl libssl-dev dkms libelf-dev libudev-dev libpci-dev libiberty-dev autoconf

Install kernel headers:

sudo apt -y install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Create a folder for kernel source:
```
mkdir -p /tmp/kernel
cd !$
```
Download kernel sources:
```
apt -y source linux
cd linux-*
```

Configure the kernel modules:

cp /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/.config ./
cp /usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r)/Module.symvers ./

Update the version in Makefile in the current directory.

The version value should be the same as in the uname -r command output. For example, if uname -r prints 4.15.0-20-generic, the values in the Makefile must be:

VERSION = 4

PATCHLEVEL = 15

SUBLEVEL = 0

EXTRAVERSION = -20-generic

Update the file, if required, and save it.
Make sure the kernel version is set correctly in the Makefile:
```
make kernelversion
```
The command output for the example above must be:
```
4.15.0-20-generic
```
Update the new .config file, if required, and save it.

Make sure the following settings in the file are enabled:

CONFIG_EXPERT=y

CONFIG_FTRACE=y

CONFIG_DEBUG_FS=y

CONFIG_DRM_I915_LOW_LEVEL_TRACEPOINTS=y
Create a full config file for the kernel:
```
make olddefconfig
```

Build module i915:

make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) modules_prepare
make -j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN) M=./drivers/gpu/drm/i915 modules

If you get the following error:

LD [M] drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.o
ld: no input files

you need to replace the following lines in scripts/Makefile.build:

link_multi_deps = \
$(filter $(addprefix $(obj)/, \
$($(subst $(obj)/,,$(@:.o=-objs))) \
$($(subst $(obj)/,,$(@:.o=-y))) \
$($(subst $(obj)/,,$(@:.o=-m)))), $^)

with the line:

link_multi_deps = $(filter %.o,$^)

NOTE:

See the patch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/commit/?id=69ea912fda74a673d330d23595385e5b73e3a2b9 for more information.

Install the new module:

sudo make M=./drivers/gpu/drm/i915 modules_install

Make sure the folder with the new driver is present in /etc/depmod.d/* files, or just add it:
```
echo "search extradrivers" | sudo tee /etc/depmod.d/00-extra.conf
```
Update initramfs:
```
sudo depmod
sudo update-initramfs -u
```
Reboot the machine:
```
sudo reboot
```

Make sure the new driver is loaded:

modinfo i915 | grep filename

The expected command output is the following:

filename: /lib/modules/4.15.0-20-generic/extradrivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko

To roll back the changes and load the original module i915:

Remove the folder with new driver from /etc/depmod.d/* files:
```
sudo rm /etc/depmod.d/00-extra.conf
```
Update initramfs:
```
sudo depmod
sudo update-initramfs -u
```
Reboot the machine:
```
sudo reboot
```

Parent topic: Set Up Your System for GPU Analysis

Related information

GPU Application Analysis on Intel® HD Graphics and Intel® Iris® Graphics

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Rebuild and Install Module i915 for GPU Analysis on Ubuntu*