How to use the Android NDK to build ArmNN

• Introduction
• Download the Android NDK and make a standalone toolchain
• Build the Boost C++ libraries
• Build the Compute Library
• Build Google's Protobuf library
• Download TensorFlow
• Build ArmNN
• Build Standalone Sample Dynamic Backend
• Run the ArmNN unit tests on an Android device

Introduction

These are step by step instructions for using the Android NDK to build ArmNN. They have been tested on a clean install of Ubuntu 18.04, and should also work with other OS versions. The instructions show how to build the ArmNN core library and the optional TensorFlow parser. All downloaded or generated files will be saved inside the ~/armnn-devenv directory.

Download the Android NDK and make a standalone toolchain

• Download the Android NDK from the official website:

mkdir -p ~/armnn-devenv/toolchains
cd ~/armnn-devenv/toolchains
# For Mac OS, change the NDK download link accordingly.
wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r20b-linux-x86_64.zip
unzip android-ndk-r20b-linux-x86_64.zip
export NDK=~/armnn-devenv/android-ndk-r20b
export NDK_TOOLCHAIN_ROOT=$NDK/toolchains/llvm/prebuilt/linux-x86_64
export PATH=$NDK_TOOLCHAIN_ROOT/bin/:$PATH

# You may want to append the above export variables commands to your `~/.bashrc` (or `~/.bash_profile` in Mac OS).

• With the android ndk-20b, you don't need to use the make_standalone_toolchain script to create a toolchain for a specific version of android. Android's current preference is for you to just specify the architecture and operating system while setting the compiler and just use the ndk directory.

Build the Boost C++ libraries

• Download Boost version 1.64:

mkdir ~/armnn-devenv/boost
cd ~/armnn-devenv/boost
wget https://dl.bintray.com/boostorg/release/1.64.0/source/boost_1_64_0.tar.bz2
tar xvf boost_1_64_0.tar.bz2

• Build:

  (Requires clang if not previously installed: sudo apt-get install clang)

  Note: You can specify the 'Android_API' version you want. For example, if your ANDROID_API is 27 then the compiler will be aarch64-linux-android27-clang++.

echo "using clang : arm : aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang++ ;" > $HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/user-config.jam
cd ~/armnn-devenv/boost/boost_1_64_0
./bootstrap.sh --prefix=$HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/install
./b2 install --user-config=$HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/user-config.jam \
 toolset=clang-arm link=static cxxflags=-fPIC \
 --with-test --with-log --with-program_options -j16

Build the Compute Library

• Clone the Compute Library:

  (Requires Git if not previously installed: sudo apt install git)

cd ~/armnn-devenv
git clone https://github.com/ARM-software/ComputeLibrary.git

• Checkout ComputeLibrary branch:

cd ComputeLibrary
git checkout <branch_name>
git pull

For example, if you want to checkout release branch of 20.02:

git checkout branches/arm_compute_20_02
git pull

• Build:

  (Requires SCons if not previously installed: sudo apt install scons)

scons arch=arm64-v8a neon=1 opencl=1 embed_kernels=1 extra_cxx_flags="-fPIC" \
 benchmark_tests=0 validation_tests=0 os=android -j16

Build Google's Protobuf library

• Clone protobuf:

mkdir ~/armnn-devenv/google
cd ~/armnn-devenv/google
git clone https://github.com/google/protobuf.git
cd protobuf
git checkout -b v3.12.0 v3.12.0

• Build a native (x86) version of the protobuf libraries and compiler (protoc):

  (Requires cUrl, autoconf, llibtool, and other build dependencies if not previously installed: sudo apt install curl autoconf libtool build-essential g++)

./autogen.sh
mkdir x86_build
cd x86_build
../configure --prefix=$HOME/armnn-devenv/google/x86_pb_install
make install -j16
cd ..

• Build the arm64 version of the protobuf libraries:

mkdir arm64_build
cd arm64_build
CC=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang \
CXX=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang++ \
CFLAGS="-fPIE -fPIC" \
    LDFLAGS="-llog -lz -lc++_static" \
   ../configure --host=aarch64-linux-android \
   --prefix=$HOME/armnn-devenv/google/arm64_pb_install \
   --enable-cross-compile \
   --with-protoc=$HOME/armnn-devenv/google/x86_pb_install/bin/protoc
make install -j16
cd ..

Download TensorFlow

• Clone TensorFlow source code:

cd ~/armnn-devenv/google/
git clone https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow.git
    cd tensorflow/
    git checkout fcc4b966f1265f466e82617020af93670141b009

Build ArmNN

• Clone ArmNN source code:

cd ~/armnn-devenv/
git clone https://github.com/ARM-software/armnn.git

• Checkout ArmNN branch:

cd armnn
git checkout <branch_name>
git pull

For example, if you want to checkout release branch of 20.02:

git checkout branches/armnn_20_02
git pull

• Generate TensorFlow protobuf definitions:

cd ~/armnn-devenv/google/tensorflow
~/armnn-devenv/armnn/scripts/generate_tensorflow_protobuf.sh \
 $HOME/armnn-devenv/google/tf_pb $HOME/armnn-devenv/google/x86_pb_install

• Build ArmNN:

  (Requires CMake if not previously installed: sudo apt install cmake)

mkdir ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build
cd ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build
CXX=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang++ \
CC=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang \
CXX_FLAGS="-fPIE -fPIC" \
cmake .. \
    -DCMAKE_ANDROID_NDK=$NDK \
    -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=Android \
    -DCMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION=<Android_API> \
    -DCMAKE_ANDROID_ARCH_ABI=arm64-v8a \
    -DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS="-pie -llog -lz" \
    -DARMCOMPUTE_ROOT=$HOME/armnn-devenv/ComputeLibrary/ \
    -DARMCOMPUTE_BUILD_DIR=$HOME/armnn-devenv/ComputeLibrary/build \
    -DBOOST_ROOT=$HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/install/ \
    -DARMCOMPUTENEON=1 -DARMCOMPUTECL=1 -DARMNNREF=1 \
    -DTF_GENERATED_SOURCES=$HOME/armnn-devenv/google/tf_pb/ -DBUILD_TF_PARSER=1 \
    -DPROTOBUF_ROOT=$HOME/armnn-devenv/google/arm64_pb_install/

To include standalone sample dynamic backend tests, add the argument to enable the tests and the dynamic backend path to the CMake command:

-DSAMPLE_DYNAMIC_BACKEND=1 \
-DDYNAMIC_BACKEND_PATHS=$SAMPLE_DYNAMIC_BACKEND_PATH
# Where $SAMPLE_DYNAMIC_BACKEND_PATH is the path where libArm_SampleDynamic_backend.so library file is pushed

• Run the build

make -j16

Build Standalone Sample Dynamic Backend

• The sample dynamic backend is located in armnn/src/dynamic/sample

mkdir build
cd build

• Use CMake to configure the build environment, update the following script and run it from the armnn/src/dynamic/sample/build directory to set up the armNN build:

#!/bin/bash
CXX=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang++ \
CC=aarch64-linux-android<Android_API>-clang \
CXX_FLAGS="-fPIE -fPIC" \
cmake \
-DCMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=Android \
-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS=--std=c++14 \
-DCMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS="-pie -llog" \
-DCMAKE_MODULE_LINKER_FLAGS="-llog" \
-DBOOST_ROOT=$HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/install \
-DBoost_SYSTEM_LIBRARY=$HOME/armnn-devenv/boost/install/lib/libboost_system.a \
-DARMNN_PATH=$HOME/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/libarmnn.so ..

• Run the build

make

Run the ArmNN unit tests on an Android device

• Push the build results to an Android device and make symbolic links for shared libraries: Currently adb version we have used for testing is 1.0.41.

adb push libarmnnTfParser.so /data/local/tmp/
adb push libarmnn.so /data/local/tmp/
    adb push libtimelineDecoder.so /data/local/tmp/
adb push UnitTests /data/local/tmp/
adb push $NDK/sources/cxx-stl/llvm-libc++/libs/arm64-v8a/libc++_shared.so /data/local/tmp/
adb push $HOME/armnn-devenv/google/arm64_pb_install/lib/libprotobuf.so /data/local/tmp/libprotobuf.so.23.0.0
adb shell 'ln -s libprotobuf.so.23.0.0 /data/local/tmp/libprotobuf.so.23'
adb shell 'ln -s libprotobuf.so.23.0.0 /data/local/tmp/libprotobuf.so'

• Push the files needed for the unit tests (they are a mix of files, directories and symbolic links):

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testSharedObject
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testSharedObject/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testSharedObject/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testDynamicBackend
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testDynamicBackend/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/testDynamicBackend/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath1
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath1/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath1/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/
adb shell ln -s Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so.1
adb shell ln -s Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so.1 /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so.1.2
adb shell ln -s Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so.1.2 /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_CpuAcc_backend.so.1.2.3
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_GpuAcc_backend.so /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/
adb shell ln -s nothing /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath2/Arm_no_backend.so

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath3

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath5
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath5/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath5/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath6
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath6/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath6/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath7

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath9
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath9/* /data/local/tmp/src/backends/backendsCommon/test/backendsTestPath9/

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/src/backends/dynamic/reference
adb push -p ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/src/backends/dynamic/reference/Arm_CpuRef_backend.so /data/local/tmp/src/backends/dynamic/reference/

# If the standalone sample dynamic tests are enabled, also push libArm_SampleDynamic_backend.so library file to the folder specified as $SAMPLE_DYNAMIC_BACKEND_PATH when ArmNN is built.
# This is the example when $SAMPLE_DYNAMIC_BACKEND_PATH is specified as /data/local/tmp/dynamic/sample/:

adb shell mkdir -p /data/local/tmp/dynamic/sample/
adb push -p ${WORKING_DIR}/armnn/src/dynamic/sample/build/libArm_SampleDynamic_backend.so /data/local/tmp/dynamic/sample/

• Run ArmNN unit tests:

adb shell 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/data/local/tmp:/vendor/lib64:/vendor/lib64/egl /data/local/tmp/UnitTests'

If libarmnnUtils.a is present in ~/armnn-devenv/armnn/build/ and the unit tests run without failure then the build was successful.