What follows are some notes I made when I last got PAPI working on Linux.

Installing PAPI

• Grab PAPI and the most recent perfctr 2.6.x
• Unpack both under ~/tmp

On Ubuntu

Get the bits needed to build a kernel:

• sudo apt-get install linux-kernel-devel fakeroot kernel-wedge kernel-package
• sudo apt-get build-dep linux-source
• sudo apt-get install linux-source
• This seems to get a slightly out-of-date version, but maybe that's ok

Unpack and patch the kernel:

• cd ~/tmp
• tar xvjf /usr/src/linux-source-*
• cd linux-source*
• Read $perfctr/INSTALL
• $perfctr/update-kernel Might fail because it can't find the right patch, in which case:
• $perfctr/update-kernel --patch=2.6.22 (tell it which patch)
• make menuconfig
• Turn on perfctr-related stuff under "Processor type and features", "Performance-monitoring counters support". You need both "virtual" and "global" support turned on.

Build the kernel:

• make-kpkg --rootcmd fakeroot --initrd --append-to-version=-perfctr kernel-image kernel-headers
• wait a while

Install the kernel:

• cd ..
• dpkg -i linux-image-*.deb
• dpkg -i linux-headers-*.deb
• Copy contents of lib/firmware/$old_kernel to /lib/firmware/$new_kernel (not sure if this is right, but so far the wireless adaptor still seems fine under the new kernel, so I guess it worked)
• cd $perfctr
• cp etc/perfctr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/99-perfctr.rules
• Boot the new kernel
• I seemed to have perfctr built as a module, probably selected that in menuconfig by mistake, so anyway:
• sudo modprobe perfctr
• cat /proc/misc | grep perfctr should now show perfctr, and you should have /dev/perfctr.

Build the perfctr library:

• cd $perfctr
• make PREFIX=$HOME/local
• make PREFIX=$HOME/local install

Now to build PAPI:

• cd $papi
• The configure script had some trouble detecting the C compiler for me, I had to edit the configure script and re-autoconf it. Change

  if test "$OS" != "linux"; then
    ...
  else
    AC_PROG_CC
    AC_PROG_F77
  fi
  

to

AC_PROG_CC
AC_PROG_F77

• autoconf
• We have a choice about whether to use the libperfctr in the PAPI distribution, or the one that comes with perfctr. The latter is probably more correct, but the former also worked for me.
• ./configure --with-perfctr-prefix=$HOME/local --prefix=$HOME/local
• make
• ./run-tests.sh (I got about 4 failures on Core 2)
• make install

Now it's all built, with header files in $HOME/local/include, libraries in $HOME/local/lib.