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I'm trying to use the OpenGL ES Tracer, but it just doesn't collect any data. I get to the following screen, but the trace file stays emtpy:

enter image description here

I've tried it also with the OpenGLES20Complete example app from Google, to exclude that anything specific to my app is causing this problem, but it just doesn't work.

I'm following the documentation for the OpenGL ES Tracer, except that I'm using IntelliJ IDEA and start the Monitor tool from there. I'm using a Nexus 10 with Android 4.2, so it fulfills the minimum version requirements.

I now also managed to try it on a different device (a Samsung Galaxy i9000 on Cyanogenmod 10), and there the OpenGL tracing works. So there seems to be something specific to the hardware or the OS running on the Android device that disables or enables the tracing.

Are there any further steps or settings I have to take to make this work? What could be the reason why I can't collect any OpenGL traces?

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3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I believe that it may be a regression with Jelly Bean 4.2.2. I had the same problem on my Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 7, and then I downgraded my Galaxy Nexus to Android 4.1.2 using fastboot and the stock Google ROM and the tracer was working again. I've opened a bug report here: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=53426

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I'd check the output in logcat to see if there is anything suspicious going on. Otherwise, you can try the following from the shell:

$ adb shell
$ am start --opengl-trace com.app.package/com.app.package.Activity

At this point you should see your app launched, but waiting for a connection from the host. You can then use the monitor tool, and in the trace connection dialog, just use the keyword system in lieu of the package name to connect to whatever is running.

Note that your app has to be debuggable.

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Go to the Developer Settings on the device and on the Enable OpenGL traces option select Logcat or Systrace.

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