Driver API tracing
Enabling
Since 2.6.32 mac80211 includes a tracing framework, and since 3.2 it is always enabled if possible (if EVENT_TRACING is enabled in the kernel.)
To be able to use it on kernels before 3.2, enable CONFIG_MAC80211_DRIVER_API_TRACER (requires tracing and CONFIG_MAC80211_DEBUG_MENU).
Using trace-cmd
The easiest way to give a trace to other people is to use trace-cmd, see also https://lwn.net/Articles/341902/. To record a trace with trace-cmd, use
trace-cmd record -e mac80211
This will record until you hit Ctrl-C to abort. The result is stored in a file "trace.dat" which you can send around for analysis. You should compress it before sending it to other people since it is relatively large but compresses well.
To analyse a file, use
trace-cmd report -i trace.dat | less
Driver tracing
In addition to mac80211, some drivers include tracing as well.
iwlwifi
For iwlwifi, set the IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING Kconfig option. You can then get new trace subsystems:
- iwlwifi
- the commands exchanged between driver and device
- iwlwifi_io
- the device IO accesses and interrupt information
- iwlwifi_dbg
- all debug messages from the driver
- iwlwifi_ucode
- uCode events (not sure they're useful today)
trace-cmd record -e mac80211 -e iwlwifi -e iwlwifi_dbg