Cross-Compile ArmNN on x86_64 for arm64

Hi Fatima,

Yes, I have a cross-compiling script which can support TensorFlow and aarch64 for you. 

I'm just doing some final testing now and will share it shortly. 

Thanks,

Jason

Hi Fatima,

Yes, I have a cross-compiling script which can support TensorFlow and aarch64 for you. 

I'm just doing some final testing now and will share it shortly. 

Thanks,

Jason

Hi Fatima,

Please have a look at the Arm github area: https://github.com/ARM-software/Tool-Solutions 

The script to cross-compile is in: https://github.com/ARM-software/Tool-Solutions/tree/master/ml-tool-examples/build-armnn 

It can support cross-compiling.

If you have no Mali which supports OpenCL you can use:

./build-armnn.sh -a arm64-v8a -o 0

One caution is don't try to build with a newer cross-compiler and then move it to a  target system which is older. This will cause problems with the C library dynamic linking. For example, don't use a Ubuntu 18.04 host machine to cross compile and then move it to an Arm board with Ubuntu 16.04. 

Thanks,

Jason

Hi JAson,

    Firstly thankyou for the files, have been trying to build and run the mnist demo but I keep getting the error libarmnn.so and libTfparser.so file format notrecognized my host machine is also 18.04 LTS just as the device so cant figure out the problem.

Many Thanks

Fatima

Hi Fatima,

It sounds like you are mixing libraries between the host machine and the Arm target board. 

If you cross compile the Arm NN stack as we have been discussing you will create Arm versions of libarmnn.so and libTfParser.so on your x86 computer. If you go to the mnist-demo and just type make it will invoke g++ from the Makefile. This will be an x86 g++ and this will complain about the Arm .so files like libarmnn.so 

If you want to cross compile the mnist-demo edit the Makefile and change g++ to be aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ 

Use make again and now the cross compiler will generate the example for Arm and the linking with the libraries will work. 

You should see the output:

aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ -O3 -std=c++17 mnist_tf_simple.cpp -o mnist_tf_simple \
	-I/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/armnn/include -I/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/pkg/boost/install/include \
	-L/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/armnn/build -larmnn -larmnnTfParser -lpthread
aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ -O3 -g -std=c++17 mnist_tf_convol.cpp -o mnist_tf_convol \
	-I/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/armnn/include -I/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/pkg/boost/install/include \
	-L/home/jasand01/armnn-devenv/armnn/build -larmnn -larmnnTfParser -lpthread

I'm assuming this is all on your x86 machine. At some point you need to copy the software to the Arm board to run it. 

Please let me now if this is not the setup you have. 

Thanks,

Jason

Hi Jason,

My setup is exactly as you mentioned the only mistake was I did not changing the makefile g++ to be aarch64-linux-gnu-g++. After doing that and running make test on my x86 machine i was getting error

fatima@cnn:~/Tool-Solutions-master/ml-tool-examples/mnist-demo$ make test
aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ -O3 -std=c++17  \
	-I/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/include -I/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/pkg/boost/install/include \
	-L/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/build mnist_tf_simple.cpp -o mnist_tf_simple -larmnn -larmnnTfParser -lpthread
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/build:/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/build ./mnist_tf_simple 1 10
/bin/sh: 1: ./mnist_tf_simple: Exec format error
Makefile:22: recipe for target 'test' failed
make: *** [test] Error 2
fatima@cnn:~/Tool-Solutions-master/ml-tool-examples/mnist-demo$ 

then I run it by changing the order which gives me following error 

fatima@cnn:~/Tool-Solutions-master/ml-tool-examples/mnist-demo$ aarch64-linux-gnu-g++ -O3 -std=c++17 -I/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/include -I/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/pkg/boost/install/include -L/home/fatima/armnn-devenv/armnn/build mnist_tf_simple.cpp mnist_loader.hpp -o  mnist_tf_simple -larmnn -larmnnTfParser -lpthread 
mnist_loader.hpp:6:9: warning: #pragma once in main file
 #pragma once
         ^~~~
mnist_loader.hpp:24:6: error: ‘unique_ptr’ in namespace ‘std’ does not name a template type
 std::unique_ptr<MnistImage> loadMnistImage(std::string dataDir, int image)
      ^~~~~~~~~~

Finally I ran by removing the mnist_loader.hpp.hpp file from the command and the mnist_tf_simple and convol files build now copying them on the target and trying to run gives error that no such file or directory found.

Kind Regards

Fatima

Hi Fatima,

Everything is correct. To run the mnist-demo you need to move everything to an Arm board and run. Originally, you were targeting the Xilinx MPSoC. You should copy everything to that board and run it. This can be done by scp or by using tar to bundle all of the files and use scp to copy a single file to the board.

The "exec format error" means you are trying to run an Arm executable on an x86 machine.

Thanks,

Jason

hello sir

i am trying to Configuring the Arm NN SDK build environment for Caffe

i refer the document from  https://developer.arm.com/technologies/machine-learning-on-arm/developer-material/how-to-guides/configuring-the-arm-nn-sdk-build-environment-for-caffe

while building the environment for armV8-a i use the cmake command as

cmake .. -DARMCOMPUTE_ROOT=/home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary -DARMCOMPUTE_BUILD_DIR=/home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build -DBOOST_ROOT=/home/bhushan/boost_1_64_0/boost -DCAFFE_GENERATED_SOURCES=/home/bhushan/caffe/src/caffe/proto -DBUILD_CAFFE_PARSER=1 -DARMCOMPUTENEON=1 -DARMCOMPUTECL=1 -DPROTOBUF_LIBRARY_RELEASE=/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src/.libs/libprotobuf.so -DPROTOBUF_LIBRARY_DEBUG=/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src/.libs/libprotobuf.so

after that  while doing the make command i got the error as

/home/bhushan/boost_1_64_0/stage/lib/libboost_log.a: error adding symbols: File in wrong format
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/build.make:1704: recipe for target 'libarmnn.so' failed
make[2]: *** [libarmnn.so] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:113: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/all] Error 2
Makefile:127: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

can u plz help me this error

Hi,

The error, "File in wrong format" typically means you are mixing compiled object from different architectures. 

Are you cross-compiling from x86 for Arm or are you native compiling on an Arm system?

The script I have to compile Arm NN doesn't have the caffe support right now, but I can add it. For now it will show you many of the steps to build Arm NN so I recommend you look at it. The script can do both a cross compile and a native compile on Arm so you will see the differences.

https://github.com/ARM-software/Tool-Solutions/tree/master/ml-tool-examples/build-armnn

Once I know your setup I can provide additional help with the compilation process. 

Thanks,

Jason

Hi,

I am cross-compiling x86 for arm-v8a

while doing cmake command it shows that it cannot find caffe.pb.cc file but while going through the path for caffe which i provided in cmake command it is visible in the file-system

about the setup ; the command i followed

0.Prerequisites
    sudo apt-get install git
    sudo apt-get install scons
    sudo apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
    sudo apt-get install g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf
    sudo apt-get install curl
    sudo apt-get install autoconf
    sudo apt-get install libtool
    sudo apt-get install cmake

1.Downloaded the repositry and bundles
    git clone github.com/.../ComputeLibrary.git
    git clone github.com/.../armnn
    wget dl.bintray.com/.../boost_1_64_0.tar.bz2
    tar xf boost_1_64_0.tar.bz2
    git clone -b v3.5.0 github.com/.../protobuf.git
    git clone https://github.com/BVLC/caffe

2.Building the ComputeLibrary
    cd ComputeLibrary
    scons arch=arm64-v8a extra_cxx_flags="-fPIC" benchmark_tests=1 validation_tests=1 opencl=1 embed_kernels=1 neon=1

3.Building the boost Library
    cd boost_1_64_0
    sh bootstrap.sh
    ./b2 link=static cxxflags=-fPIC --with-filesystem --with-test --with-log --with-program_options

4.Building the Protobuf Library
    cd protobuf
    git submodule update --init --recursive
    ./autogen.sh
    ./configure --prefix=$/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/protobuf-host
      ./configure --prefix=$/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/protobuf-arm --host=arm-linux CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc CXX=arm-linux-gnueabihf-g++ --with-protoc=$/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf-host/bin/protoc
    make

5.Building caffe for armnn
    cd caffe
    sudo apt-get install libprotobuf-dev libleveldb-dev libsnappy-dev libopencv-dev libhdf5-serial-dev libgoogle-glog-dev libgflags-dev
      sudo apt-get install protobuf-compiler
    sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends libboost-all-dev
    cp Makefile.config.example Makefile.config
    sudo apt-get install python-pip
    sudo pip install scikit-image protobuf
    made changes in *Makefile.config*
    make all
    make test
    make runtest

6.Building Armnn
    cd armnn/build/
     cmake .. -DARMCOMPUTE_ROOT=/home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary -DARMCOMPUTE_BUILD_DIR=/home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build -DBOOST_ROOT=/home/bhushan/boost_1_64_0/boost -DCAFFE_GENERATED_SOURCES=/home/bhushan/caffe/src/caffe/proto -DBUILD_CAFFE_PARSER=1 -DARMCOMPUTENEON=1 -DARMCOMPUTECL=1 -DPROTOBUF_LIBRARY_RELEASE=/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src/.libs/libprotobuf.so -DPROTOBUF_LIBRARY_DEBUG=/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src/.libs/libprotobuf.so
    make

after performing the cmake for armnn build it shows that it cannot find caffe.pb.cc file

while going through the errors and warnings i saw that the boost library was not build and some files where incomplete to download .

after making changes in boost library and following the steps properly the error is resolved

Again performing the cmake command it shows error as

[ 75%] Linking CXX shared library libarmnn.so
/usr/bin/ld: /home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a(Error.o): Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 183)
/usr/bin/ld: /home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a(Error.o): Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 183)
/usr/bin/ld: /home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a(Error.o): Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 183)
/usr/bin/ld: /home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a(Error.o): Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 183)
/usr/bin/ld: /home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a(Error.o): Relocations in generic ELF (EM: 183)
/home/bhushan/ComputeLibrary/build/libarm_compute_core-static.a: error adding symbols: File in wrong format
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/build.make:1704: recipe for target 'libarmnn.so' failed
make[2]: *** [libarmnn.so] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:113: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/armnn.dir/all] Error 2
Makefile:127: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

after going through these errors i recompile the computeLibrary but no error while make command

after that i followed the steps for protobuf no error while make

~/Downloads/protobuf$ make
make  all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf'
Making all in .
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf'
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf'
Making all in src
make[2]: Entering directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src'
make[2]: Nothing to be done for 'all'.
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src'
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf'

but got errors while make install

libtool:   error: only absolute run-paths are allowed
Makefile:2201: recipe for target 'libprotobuf-lite.la' failed
make[2]: *** [libprotobuf-lite.la] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf/src'
Makefile:1594: recipe for target 'all-recursive' failed
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/bhushan/Downloads/protobuf'
Makefile:1501: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

How can i solve these error i delete all the previous file and downloaded the new ones but same errors occur as previous one

can u plz suggest where i am going wrong

Thanks,

Hi, thanks for your great advice, but for now I have another problem.

I'm a Xilinx FPGA user, now I have complete the build process for armnn which mean I have generated the .so file and UnitTest can execute successfully on my ZCU104.

But the rest of my code is compiled and build on my IDE like this

The makefile is generated by IDE, which i can use GUI to config make setting

The setting I frequently use is this two

Directories

Libraries

Which indicate the -i and -l command in makefile

 so what file should I extract so that I can build armnn software in this IDE?