papi_avail: No events available

I want to get into PAPI. I have Version 5.3.2.0 on Debian GNU/Linux. papi_avail just tells me that no hardware events are available:

$ papi_avail 
Available events and hardware information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAPI Version             : 5.3.2.0
Vendor string and code   : GenuineIntel (1)
Model string and code    : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-5010U CPU @ 2.10GHz (61)
CPU Revision             : 4.000000
CPUID Info               : Family: 6  Model: 61  Stepping: 4
CPU Max Megahertz        : 2100
CPU Min Megahertz        : 500
Hdw Threads per core     : 2
Cores per Socket         : 2
Sockets                  : 1
NUMA Nodes               : 1
CPUs per Node            : 4
Total CPUs               : 4
Running in a VM          : no
Number Hardware Counters : 11
Max Multiplex Counters   : 128
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Name        Code    Avail Deriv Description (Note)
PAPI_L1_DCM  0x80000000  No    No   Level 1 data cache misses
PAPI_L1_ICM  0x80000001  No    No   Level 1 instruction cache misses
PAPI_L2_DCM  0x80000002  No    No   Level 2 data cache misses
PAPI_L2_ICM  0x80000003  No    No   Level 2 instruction cache misses
PAPI_L3_DCM  0x80000004  No    No   Level 3 data cache misses
PAPI_L3_ICM  0x80000005  No    No   Level 3 instruction cache misses
PAPI_L1_TCM  0x80000006  No    No   Level 1 cache misses
PAPI_L2_TCM  0x80000007  No    No   Level 2 cache misses
PAPI_L3_TCM  0x80000008  No    No   Level 3 cache misses
PAPI_CA_SNP  0x80000009  No    No   Requests for a snoop
PAPI_CA_SHR  0x8000000a  No    No   Requests for exclusive access to shared cache line
PAPI_CA_CLN  0x8000000b  No    No   Requests for exclusive access to clean cache line
PAPI_CA_INV  0x8000000c  No    No   Requests for cache line invalidation
PAPI_CA_ITV  0x8000000d  No    No   Requests for cache line intervention
PAPI_L3_LDM  0x8000000e  No    No   Level 3 load misses
PAPI_L3_STM  0x8000000f  No    No   Level 3 store misses
PAPI_BRU_IDL 0x80000010  No    No   Cycles branch units are idle
PAPI_FXU_IDL 0x80000011  No    No   Cycles integer units are idle
PAPI_FPU_IDL 0x80000012  No    No   Cycles floating point units are idle
PAPI_LSU_IDL 0x80000013  No    No   Cycles load/store units are idle
PAPI_TLB_DM  0x80000014  No    No   Data translation lookaside buffer misses
PAPI_TLB_IM  0x80000015  No    No   Instruction translation lookaside buffer misses
PAPI_TLB_TL  0x80000016  No    No   Total translation lookaside buffer misses
PAPI_L1_LDM  0x80000017  No    No   Level 1 load misses
PAPI_L1_STM  0x80000018  No    No   Level 1 store misses
PAPI_L2_LDM  0x80000019  No    No   Level 2 load misses
PAPI_L2_STM  0x8000001a  No    No   Level 2 store misses
PAPI_BTAC_M  0x8000001b  No    No   Branch target address cache misses
PAPI_PRF_DM  0x8000001c  No    No   Data prefetch cache misses
PAPI_L3_DCH  0x8000001d  No    No   Level 3 data cache hits
PAPI_TLB_SD  0x8000001e  No    No   Translation lookaside buffer shootdowns
PAPI_CSR_FAL 0x8000001f  No    No   Failed store conditional instructions
PAPI_CSR_SUC 0x80000020  No    No   Successful store conditional instructions
PAPI_CSR_TOT 0x80000021  No    No   Total store conditional instructions
PAPI_MEM_SCY 0x80000022  No    No   Cycles Stalled Waiting for memory accesses
PAPI_MEM_RCY 0x80000023  No    No   Cycles Stalled Waiting for memory Reads
PAPI_MEM_WCY 0x80000024  No    No   Cycles Stalled Waiting for memory writes
PAPI_STL_ICY 0x80000025  No    No   Cycles with no instruction issue
PAPI_FUL_ICY 0x80000026  No    No   Cycles with maximum instruction issue
PAPI_STL_CCY 0x80000027  No    No   Cycles with no instructions completed
PAPI_FUL_CCY 0x80000028  No    No   Cycles with maximum instructions completed
PAPI_HW_INT  0x80000029  No    No   Hardware interrupts
PAPI_BR_UCN  0x8000002a  No    No   Unconditional branch instructions
PAPI_BR_CN   0x8000002b  No    No   Conditional branch instructions
PAPI_BR_TKN  0x8000002c  No    No   Conditional branch instructions taken
PAPI_BR_NTK  0x8000002d  No    No   Conditional branch instructions not taken
PAPI_BR_MSP  0x8000002e  No    No   Conditional branch instructions mispredicted
PAPI_BR_PRC  0x8000002f  No    No   Conditional branch instructions correctly predicted
PAPI_FMA_INS 0x80000030  No    No   FMA instructions completed
PAPI_TOT_IIS 0x80000031  No    No   Instructions issued
PAPI_TOT_INS 0x80000032  No    No   Instructions completed
PAPI_INT_INS 0x80000033  No    No   Integer instructions
PAPI_FP_INS  0x80000034  No    No   Floating point instructions
PAPI_LD_INS  0x80000035  No    No   Load instructions
PAPI_SR_INS  0x80000036  No    No   Store instructions
PAPI_BR_INS  0x80000037  No    No   Branch instructions
PAPI_VEC_INS 0x80000038  No    No   Vector/SIMD instructions (could include integer)
PAPI_RES_STL 0x80000039  No    No   Cycles stalled on any resource
PAPI_FP_STAL 0x8000003a  No    No   Cycles the FP unit(s) are stalled
PAPI_TOT_CYC 0x8000003b  No    No   Total cycles
PAPI_LST_INS 0x8000003c  No    No   Load/store instructions completed
PAPI_SYC_INS 0x8000003d  No    No   Synchronization instructions completed
PAPI_L1_DCH  0x8000003e  No    No   Level 1 data cache hits
PAPI_L2_DCH  0x8000003f  No    No   Level 2 data cache hits
PAPI_L1_DCA  0x80000040  No    No   Level 1 data cache accesses
PAPI_L2_DCA  0x80000041  No    No   Level 2 data cache accesses
PAPI_L3_DCA  0x80000042  No    No   Level 3 data cache accesses
PAPI_L1_DCR  0x80000043  No    No   Level 1 data cache reads
PAPI_L2_DCR  0x80000044  No    No   Level 2 data cache reads
PAPI_L3_DCR  0x80000045  No    No   Level 3 data cache reads
PAPI_L1_DCW  0x80000046  No    No   Level 1 data cache writes
PAPI_L2_DCW  0x80000047  No    No   Level 2 data cache writes
PAPI_L3_DCW  0x80000048  No    No   Level 3 data cache writes
PAPI_L1_ICH  0x80000049  No    No   Level 1 instruction cache hits
PAPI_L2_ICH  0x8000004a  No    No   Level 2 instruction cache hits
PAPI_L3_ICH  0x8000004b  No    No   Level 3 instruction cache hits
PAPI_L1_ICA  0x8000004c  No    No   Level 1 instruction cache accesses
PAPI_L2_ICA  0x8000004d  No    No   Level 2 instruction cache accesses
PAPI_L3_ICA  0x8000004e  No    No   Level 3 instruction cache accesses
PAPI_L1_ICR  0x8000004f  No    No   Level 1 instruction cache reads
PAPI_L2_ICR  0x80000050  No    No   Level 2 instruction cache reads
PAPI_L3_ICR  0x80000051  No    No   Level 3 instruction cache reads
PAPI_L1_ICW  0x80000052  No    No   Level 1 instruction cache writes
PAPI_L2_ICW  0x80000053  No    No   Level 2 instruction cache writes
PAPI_L3_ICW  0x80000054  No    No   Level 3 instruction cache writes
PAPI_L1_TCH  0x80000055  No    No   Level 1 total cache hits
PAPI_L2_TCH  0x80000056  No    No   Level 2 total cache hits
PAPI_L3_TCH  0x80000057  No    No   Level 3 total cache hits
PAPI_L1_TCA  0x80000058  No    No   Level 1 total cache accesses
PAPI_L2_TCA  0x80000059  No    No   Level 2 total cache accesses
PAPI_L3_TCA  0x8000005a  No    No   Level 3 total cache accesses
PAPI_L1_TCR  0x8000005b  No    No   Level 1 total cache reads
PAPI_L2_TCR  0x8000005c  No    No   Level 2 total cache reads
PAPI_L3_TCR  0x8000005d  No    No   Level 3 total cache reads
PAPI_L1_TCW  0x8000005e  No    No   Level 1 total cache writes
PAPI_L2_TCW  0x8000005f  No    No   Level 2 total cache writes
PAPI_L3_TCW  0x80000060  No    No   Level 3 total cache writes
PAPI_FML_INS 0x80000061  No    No   Floating point multiply instructions
PAPI_FAD_INS 0x80000062  No    No   Floating point add instructions
PAPI_FDV_INS 0x80000063  No    No   Floating point divide instructions
PAPI_FSQ_INS 0x80000064  No    No   Floating point square root instructions
PAPI_FNV_INS 0x80000065  No    No   Floating point inverse instructions
PAPI_FP_OPS  0x80000066  No    No   Floating point operations
PAPI_SP_OPS  0x80000067  No    No   Floating point operations; optimized to count scaled single precision vector operations
PAPI_DP_OPS  0x80000068  No    No   Floating point operations; optimized to count scaled double precision vector operations
PAPI_VEC_SP  0x80000069  No    No   Single precision vector/SIMD instructions
PAPI_VEC_DP  0x8000006a  No    No   Double precision vector/SIMD instructions
PAPI_REF_CYC 0x8000006b  No    No   Reference clock cycles
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of 108 possible events, 0 are available, of which 0 are derived.

I could not find anything in the documentation, nor in the FAQ. Does anyone know what is wrong here?

I just had the same problem. In my case it was an overly paranoid kernel flag:

root@*****:/home/*****# ./papi/src/utils/papi_component_avail
Available components and hardware information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[...]

Compiled-in components:

Name:   perf_event              Linux perf_event CPU counters
   \-> Disabled: perf_event support disabled by Linux with paranoid=3
Name:   perf_event_uncore       Linux perf_event CPU uncore and northbridge

Active components:
Name:   perf_event_uncore       Linux perf_event CPU uncore and northbridge
                                Native: 2, Preset: 0, Counters: 3
                                PMUs supported: rapl

My understanding of perf_event_paranoid was that it did not apply to root, but apparently the value 3 was different.

Not sure if that was the case for the original question, because 3 seems to be added in 2016, but since this is the question that people might ask nowadays, I hope this helps.

This fixed it:

sudo sh -c 'echo -1 >/proc/sys/kernel/perf_event_paranoid'

Note that this opens up the counters to everyone, which was fine in my case.

Version info:

• Kernel 4.13.0-32P
• PAPI