Building ROCprof Compute Viewer from source

Building ROCprof Compute Viewer from source#

2026-07-15

4 min read time

Applies to Linux

This topic explains how to build ROCprof Compute Viewer (RCV) from source on various Operating Systems.

For prebuild binaries, see the RCV release.

The following table lists the supported operating systems, recommended Qt versions, and support level:

OS

Recommended Qt version

Support

Windows 11

6.8+

Full

macOS (ARM)

6.4+

Full

macOS (x86)

6.4+

Partial

WSL2

6.4+

Full

Ubuntu 24.04

6.4+

Full

Ubuntu 22.04

5.15

Partial

By default, the project builds with Qt 6.8. To build with Qt 5, use:

cmake -DQT_VERSION_MAJOR=5 ..

For Qt 6.4, use:

cmake -DQT_VERSION_MINOR=4 ..

Building on macOS Homebrew#

  1. Install Qt 5 or Qt 6:

    brew install qt@5
brew install qt@6

  2. Configure CMake and build:

    mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(brew --prefix qt@6)
# or
cmake .. -DQT_VERSION_MAJOR=5 -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$(brew --prefix qt@5)
make -j

Building on Linux#

  1. Install Qt 5 or Qt 6:

    • For Ubuntu 22.04

      sudo apt install -y qtbase5-dev qt5-qmake cmake build-essential

    • For Ubuntu 24.04

      sudo apt install -y libgl1 qtbase5-dev qt5-qmake cmake build-essential

    • For other distributions, see Getting Started with Qt.

  2. Configure CMake and build:

    mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DQT_VERSION_MAJOR=5
# for qt6.4, use
# cmake .. -DQT_VERSION_MAJOR=6 -DQT_VERSION_MINOR=4
make -j

Building on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)#

  • Requires Ubuntu 22+

  • Follow the same instructions as given for Linux

  • Recommended to use Qt 5.15

Building on Windows Native#

To build on Windows, use Qt Tools with Qt 6.8 (or later). See Installing Qt on Windows for details.

Trace-decoder support#

Trace-decoder support lets RCV open directories of raw .att/.out files captured directly through the rocprofiler-sdk API, without needing rocprofv3 to convert them to JSON first. This is RCV’s own link to the decoder and is independent of the decoder bundled with rocprofv3 since ROCm 7.13.

By default, CMake fetches and builds the decoder automatically when TRACE_DECODER_ROOT is not provided, except on macOS where fetching is disabled by default. To build a JSON-only viewer without the decoder, pass -DRCV_FETCH_TRACE_DECODER=OFF. To use a prebuilt decoder instead, pass -DTRACE_DECODER_ROOT=<path>.

After CMake runs, the output confirms whether the decoder was found:

  • -- Trace-decoder enabled: .../source — decoder is available and the path to its source is shown.

  • -- Trace-decoder disabled — no decoder; only rocprofv3 JSON input is supported.

Disassembly backend (optional)#

A disassembly backend lets the decoder produce ISA for raw .att/.out inputs. It is only needed if you want built-in disassembly. If you supply code.json via Generating ISA and source correlation or only need the raw trace, you can build without one via -DRCV_FETCH_TRACE_DECODER_WITH_DISASSEMBLY=OFF.

Two backends are supported:

  • amd_comgr (default): the amd_comgr library shipped with ROCm. Point CMake at it with CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or ROCM_PATH; no separate LLVM package is required.

  • LLVM-C: a system LLVM development package with the AMDGPU target. The RCV fetch path always uses amd_comgr, so this applies only to a prebuilt decoder configured with -DUSE_LLVM_DISASM=ON.

    To install the LLVM dev package:

    # Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y llvm-dev libclang-dev

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install -y llvm-devel clang-devel

    On Windows, install a full LLVM dev package (for example via the official installer or choco install llvm) and pass -DLLVM_DIR=<path-to>/lib/cmake/llvm when running CMake.

CMake options#

Variable

Default

Effect

RCV_FETCH_TRACE_DECODER

ON (OFF on macOS)

Fetch and build the trace decoder automatically when TRACE_DECODER_ROOT is not set.

RCV_FETCH_TRACE_DECODER_WITH_DISASSEMBLY

ON

Build the fetched decoder with the amd_comgr disassembly backend.

TRACE_DECODER_ROOT

(unset)

Use a prebuilt decoder tree (build dir or install prefix) instead of fetching. Takes precedence over RCV_FETCH_TRACE_DECODER.

RCV_TRACE_DECODER_REPO

rocm-systems upstream

Git URL to fetch from.

RCV_TRACE_DECODER_TAG

tracked branch

Branch, tag, or commit to check out. Use develop for the latest decoder.

RCV_TRACE_DECODER_FETCH_DIR

${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/external/rocm-systems

Local directory where the decoder source is downloaded. Placing it outside build/ means a clean rebuild does not redownload the monorepo.

Disabling OpenGL widgets#

To disable OpenGL widgets, use:

cmake .. -DRCV_DISABLE_OPENGL=On
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