AArch64 (64-bit ARM support)

[swarren]

There are currently no 64-bit ARM (AArch64) binaries of the Arduino IDE available to download, and it doesn't quite build from source.

I have modified the source of the IDE and all binary dependencies so that it builds (at least on Ubuntu 16.04), and will eventually send pull requests for all the build script repos.

Question: How do we go about updating the tool downloads on arduino.cc so that the IDE build can pull in the binary dependencies? Will you run the build process for each dependency after the relevant pull requests are merged, or would you want me to supply the binaries (for corporate legal reasons, that would be painful for me). Do you have access to an AArch64 to run the builds (NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2, a Raspberry Pi with a non-default Linux distro, and probably a few other devices would work).

[facchinm]

Hi @swarren ,
right now AARCH64 support is not a top priority, mainly because installing libc 32bit compatibility layer should allow all binaries to run seamlessly (does it? 😄 I tested it on a NanoPi Neo 2, only some tools and not the full-fledged IDE, so something could be broken).
The main issue in merging all the needed PRs is, as you correctly noticed, the presence of binary tools that, on one hand, make the IDE buildable simply with JDK on any platform, but on the other make supporting a new platform quite a PITA.
If the 32bit compatibility layer is the only requirement I'd rather wait for the platform to gain traction (and the distros to start shipping pure 64bit images)

[PaulStoffregen]

FWIW, at least a few people have expressed interest to me in running on Jetson or Odroid which use 64 bit ARM. I always give them the same answer: I only support Arduino has published directly from Arduino.cc, and there isn't a 64 bit ARM version yet.

[facchinm]

@PaulStoffregen isn't installing libc:armhf enough? In this case, I'll push to support the platform asap, otherwise we can live a bit without the "proper" package.

[PaulStoffregen]

I honestly don't know. My past experience has been that command line programs work, but anything GUI-based tends to have a long list of complex library dependencies that makes me feel dizzy.

So far I personally don't own any ARM64 hardware. Maybe I'll get a Jetson or Odroid?

[swarren]

We (NVIDIA) have been shipping AArch64-only systems for a couple of years now; for us at least AArch64 is pretty real. This bug was filed in response to real issues seen by participants at the MakeMIT2018 hackathon; almost everyone who used a Jetson in their hack had an Arduino attached to their Jetson and wanted to run the Arduino IDE to program it, but had to fall back to a PC or Mac for that part.

Installing a 32-bit libc isn't enough. The primary issue here is that the 64-bit JVM cannot load a 32-bit shared-library, so the liblistserialports and astyle libraries won't load. I didn't attempt to use the command-line utilities standalone, but there's a good chance they rely on other libraries besides the C library and also won't run with just the 32-bit libc installed.

Note that I've done all the work required to get all the various components built and running on AArch64, and I'll send pull requests for that soon. I'm just waiting on legal review before I contribute patches to the Arduino project, since we haven't contributed before.

[PaulStoffregen]

Just a tiny bit off-topic... but wasn't there a one-time maker discount or special deal on Jetson TX2? The only ones I can find now are all $600+

[swarren]

I'll address Paul's comment via email.

[swarren]

The following pull requests implement almost everything:
arduino/listSerialPortsC#10
arduino/astyle#5
arduino/avrdude-build-script#10
arduino/toolchain-avr#49

For the IDE's serial monitor to work correctly, we'll also need to following bug fixed and a new release of JSSC pulled into the IDE tree:
https://github.com/scream3r/java-simple-serial-connector/issues/121
"Please support 64-bit ARM (AArch64)"
(Or we could create a patch version of that dependencie's source and build our own)

Once those are done and new binary dependencies uploaded, I'll modify the following to contain the correct SHAs etc. and send a pull request for that.
swarren@8314558

[swarren]

When the binary components in the Arduino IDE are built for AArch64, what AArch64 OS will they be compiled on? I ask because (a) I tested all my patches on an Ubuntu 16.04 system, although I imagine the build would work on other OSs, and (b) whatever OS is chosen will be the oldest OS that the IDE binary components can run on, due to the way glibc symbol versioning and ABI compatibiilty work.

I think for a new feature like AArch64 host support, it'd be fine to support Ubuntu 16.04 and newer as a baseline. This is also the OS that NVIDIA Jetson TX1/TX2 and the ODroid use by default. I believe if we build on Ubuntu 16.04, then the binaries would also run on the SuSe Leap release for Raspberry Pi.

[lobradov]

armbian could be an alternative. It's a Ubuntu/Debian derivate for various arm boards, and supports many aarch64 fruit pi boards which might be good alternative to expensive jetson stuff.

https://www.armbian.com/

[facchinm]

The baseline for the linux32/linux64/linuxarm builds is currently Debian7, which ships with a slightly older glibc compared with Ubuntu 12.04 (I know, we are talking about Stone Age software but it's still somehow used 😄 ).
I believe that Ubuntu 16.04 can be a good baseline for the AARCH64 port 😉

[PaulStoffregen]

Ubuntu 16.04 sounds good.

FWIW, several months I replaced most of Teensy's old & kludgey device detection code with libudev. Previously I had been using Ubuntu 10 as my baseline. I quickly discovered programs compiled on Ubuntu 10 & 12 link against libudev0, but all modern Linux distros are now shipping with libudev1. I had to switch to using Ubuntu 14.04 as my baseline for x86 and Raspbian 8 Jessie as my baseline for 32 bit ARM.