RHEA-2008:0400 - Product Enhancement Advisory

Topic

Updated oprofile packages which correct bugs, add support for several new
processors and add XML as an output option for profile reports are now
available.

Description

OProfile is a system-wide profiler for Linux systems. The profiling runs
transparently in the background and profile data can be collected at any
time. OProfile makes use of the hardware performance counters provided on
many processors, and can use the Real Time Clock (RTC) for profiling on
processors without counters.

These updated packages fix the following bugs:

• counter 1 was incorrectly used for the CYCLES event on the IBM Power6

CPU. This updated package correctly uses counter 3 for this event.

• while 32-bit C++ symbols were properly demangled in oprofile reports,

equivalent 64-bit C++ symbols were left mangled. This updated package
demangles 64-bit C++ symbols as expected.

As well, the new packages add support for the following processors:

• the AMD K10 (also known as "Family 10h Processors" or "AMD Family 10").
• the IBM Power5+.
• the IBM PowerPC 970MP.
• the IBM Cell BE.

Finally, OProfile is now able to produce XML-based profile reports.
Previous versions of this package could only produce text-based reports.

Power6+ users, and all users wanting to profile systems with AMD K10, IBM
Power5+, IBM PowerPC 970MP or IBM Cell BE CPUs, should upgrade to these
updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 250852 - The xenoprof patch define conflict with defines in oprofile 0.9.3

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)