Since commit 18e7a45a ("perf/x86: Reject non sampling events with
precise_ip") returns -EINVAL for sys_perf_event_open() with an attribute
with (attr.precise_ip > 0 && attr.sample_period == 0), just like is done
in the routine used to probe the max precise level when no events were
passed to 'perf record' or 'perf top', i.e.:

	perf_evsel__new_cycles()
		perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip()

The x86 code, in x86_pmu_hw_config(), which is called all the way from
sys_perf_event_open() did, starting with the aforementioned commit:

                /* There's no sense in having PEBS for non sampling events: */
                if (!is_sampling_event(event))
                        return -EINVAL;

Which makes it fail for cycles:ppp, cycles:pp and cycles:p, always using
just the non precise cycles variant.

To make sure that this is the case, I tested it, before this patch,
with:

  # perf probe -L x86_pmu_hw_config
  <x86_pmu_hw_config@/home/acme/git/linux/arch/x86/events/core.c:0>
        0  int x86_pmu_hw_config(struct perf_event *event)
        1  {
        2         if (event->attr.precise_ip) {
<SNIP>
       17                 if (event->attr.precise_ip > precise)
       18                         return -EOPNOTSUPP;

                          /* There's no sense in having PEBS for non sampling events: */
       21                 if (!is_sampling_event(event))
       22                         return -EINVAL;
                  }
<SNIP>
  # perf probe x86_pmu_hw_config:22
  Added new events:
    probe:x86_pmu_hw_config (on x86_pmu_hw_config:22)
    probe:x86_pmu_hw_config_1 (on x86_pmu_hw_config:22)

  You can now use it in all perf tools, such as:

        perf record -e probe:x86_pmu_hw_config_1 -aR sleep 1

  # perf trace -e perf_event_open,probe:x86_pmu_hwconfig*/max-stack=16/ perf record usleep 1
     0.000 ( 0.015 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x7ffebc8ba110, cpu: -1, group_fd: -1      ) ...
     0.015 (         ): probe:x86_pmu_hw_config:(ffffffff9c0065e1))
                                       x86_pmu_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       hsw_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       x86_pmu_event_init ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_try_init_event ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_event_alloc ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       SYSC_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       sys_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       do_syscall_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       return_from_SYSCALL_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evsel__new_cycles (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evlist__add_default (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       cmd_record (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       run_builtin (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       handle_internal_command (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.000 ( 0.021 ms): perf/4150  ... [continued]: perf_event_open()) = -1 EINVAL Invalid argument
     0.023 ( 0.002 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x7ffebc8ba110, cpu: -1, group_fd: -1      ) ...
     0.025 (         ): probe:x86_pmu_hw_config:(ffffffff9c0065e1))
                                       x86_pmu_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       hsw_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       x86_pmu_event_init ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_try_init_event ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_event_alloc ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       SYSC_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       sys_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       do_syscall_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       return_from_SYSCALL_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evsel__new_cycles (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evlist__add_default (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       cmd_record (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       run_builtin (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       handle_internal_command (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.023 ( 0.004 ms): perf/4150  ... [continued]: perf_event_open()) = -1 EINVAL Invalid argument
     0.028 ( 0.002 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x7ffebc8ba110, cpu: -1, group_fd: -1      ) ...
     0.030 (         ): probe:x86_pmu_hw_config:(ffffffff9c0065e1))
                                       x86_pmu_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       hsw_hw_config ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       x86_pmu_event_init ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_try_init_event ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       perf_event_alloc ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       SYSC_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       sys_perf_event_open ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       do_syscall_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       return_from_SYSCALL_64 ([kernel.kallsyms])
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evsel__new_cycles (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       perf_evlist__add_default (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       cmd_record (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       run_builtin (/home/acme/bin/perf)
                                       handle_internal_command (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.028 ( 0.004 ms): perf/4150  ... [continued]: perf_event_open()) = -1 EINVAL Invalid argument
    41.018 ( 0.012 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x7ffebc8b5dd0, pid: -1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
    41.065 ( 0.011 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c7db78, pid: -1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
    41.080 ( 0.006 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c7db78, pid: -1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
    41.103 ( 0.010 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c4e748, pid: 4151 (perf), group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
    41.115 ( 0.006 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c4e748, pid: 4151 (perf), cpu: 1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 5
    41.122 ( 0.004 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c4e748, pid: 4151 (perf), cpu: 2, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 6
    41.128 ( 0.008 ms): perf/4150 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x3c4e748, pid: 4151 (perf), cpu: 3, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 8
  [ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
  [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.017 MB perf.data (2 samples) ]
  #

I.e. that return -EINVAL in x86_pmu_hw_config() is hit three times.

So fix it by just setting attr.sample_period

Now, after this patch:

  # perf trace --max-stack=2 -e perf_event_open,probe:x86_pmu_hw_config* perf record usleep 1
  [ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
     0.000 ( 0.017 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x7ffe36c27d10, pid: -1, cpu: 3, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_event_open_cloexec_flag (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.050 ( 0.031 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24ebb78, pid: -1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evlist__config (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.092 ( 0.040 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24ebb78, pid: -1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evlist__config (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.143 ( 0.007 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24bc748, cpu: -1, group_fd: -1           ) = 4
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.161 ( 0.007 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24bc748, pid: 8470 (perf), group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 4
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evsel__open (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.171 ( 0.005 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24bc748, pid: 8470 (perf), cpu: 1, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 5
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evsel__open (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.180 ( 0.007 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24bc748, pid: 8470 (perf), cpu: 2, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 6
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evsel__open (/home/acme/bin/perf)
     0.190 ( 0.005 ms): perf/8469 perf_event_open(attr_uptr: 0x24bc748, pid: 8470 (perf), cpu: 3, group_fd: -1, flags: FD_CLOEXEC) = 8
                                       syscall (/usr/lib64/libc-2.24.so)
                                       perf_evsel__open (/home/acme/bin/perf)
  [ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.017 MB perf.data (7 samples) ]
  #

The probe one called from perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip() works
the first time, with attr.precise_ip = 3, wit hthe next ones being the
per cpu ones for the cycles:ppp event.

And here is the text from a report and alternative proposed patch by
Thomas-Mich Richter:

 ---

On s390 the counter and sampling facility do not support a precise IP
skid level and sometimes returns EOPNOTSUPP when structure member
precise_ip in struct perf_event_attr is not set to zero.

On s390 commnd 'perf record -- true' fails with error EOPNOTSUPP.  This
happens only when no events are specified on command line.

The functions called are
...
  --> perf_evlist__add_default
      --> perf_evsel__new_cycles
          --> perf_event_attr__set_max_precise_ip

The last function determines the value of structure member precise_ip by
invoking the perf_event_open() system call and checking the return code.
The first successful open is the value for precise_ip.

However the value is determined without setting member sample_period and
indicates no sampling.

On s390 the counter facility and sampling facility are different.  The
above procedure determines a precise_ip value of 3 using the counter
facility. Later it uses the sampling facility with a value of 3 and
fails with EOPNOTSUPP.

 ---

v2: Older compilers (e.g. gcc 4.4.7) don't support referencing members
    of unnamed union members in the container struct initialization, so
    move from:

	struct perf_event_attr attr = {
		...
		.sample_period = 1,
	};

to right after it as:

	struct perf_event_attr attr = {
		...
	};

	attr.sample_period = 1;

v3: We need to reset .sample_period to 0 to let the users of
perf_evsel__new_cycles() to properly setup attr.sample_period or
attr.sample_freq. Reported by Ingo Molnar.
Reported-and-Acked-by: Thomas-Mich Richter <tmricht@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Acked-by: Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Acked-by: Jiri Olsa <jolsa@redhat.com>
Cc: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@intel.com>
Cc: Alexander Shishkin <alexander.shishkin@linux.intel.com>
Cc: David Ahern <dsahern@gmail.com>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Wang Nan <wangnan0@huawei.com>
Fixes: 18e7a45a ("perf/x86: Reject non sampling events with precise_ip")
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/n/tip-yv6nnkl7tzqocrm0hl3x7vf1@git.kernel.orgSigned-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>