The oprof_start application provides a convenient way to start the profiler. Note that oprof_start is just a wrapper around the opcontrol script, so it does not provide more services than the script itself.

After oprof_start is started you can select the event type for each counter; the sampling rate and other related parameters are explained in Section 2, “Using opcontrol”. The "Configuration" section allows you to set general parameters such as the buffer size, kernel filename etc. The counter setup interface should be self-explanatory; Section 5.1, “Hardware performance counters” and related links contain information on using unit masks.

A status line shows the current status of the profiler: how long it has been running, and the average number of interrupts received per second and the total, over all processors. Note that quitting oprof_start does not stop the profiler.

Your configuration is saved in the same file as opcontrol uses; that is, ~/.oprofile/daemonrc.