AOSP system programming using VNDK, meson and NDK

This is an example project on how to use meson to cross-compile an aarch64 binary that uses VNDK-only libraries, such as libui.

Overview

The following projects are involved:

• NDK: provides the cross-compiler toolchains such as aarch64-linux-android33-clang++
• VNDK: provides vendor-only libraries such as libui and such. These are not part of Android NDK
• Meson: as a build system

Pre-requisite

1. Install meson version 1.3.0 or higher. This can be done via pip

pip install meson==1.3.0

Note: earlier versions of meson have a bug with overriding the standard C++ library. See: mesonbuild/meson#12361

2. Download the NDK:

wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r26b-linux.zip
unzip android-ndk-r26b-linux.zip
mv android-ndk-r26b /mnt/work/aosp/

Update aarch64-linux-android-ndk.txt to include your own NDK install path:

[constants]
# TODO: edit these paths for your own locations
ndk = '/mnt/work/aosp/android-ndk-r26b'

Build instructions

meson setup --cross-file=aarch64-linux-android-ndk.txt build-aarch64-linux-android
meson compile -C build-aarch64-linux-android

For arm32, use:

meson setup --cross-file=arm-linux-androideabi-ndk.txt build-arm-linux-androideabi
meson compile -C build-arm-linux-androideabi

For x86_64, use:

meson setup --cross-file=x86_64-linux-android-ndk.txt build-x86_64-linux-android
meson compile -C build-x86_64-linux-android

Building will automatically fetch the VNDK as a subproject and link against the required VNDK libraries.

Install instructions

adb root
adb remount
# for aarch64
adb push build-aarch64-linux-android/vndk_meson /vendor/bin
# for arm32
adb push build-arm-linux-androideabi/vndk_meson /vendor/bin
# for x86_64
adb push build-x86_64-linux-android/vndk_meson /vendor/bin

Then on board, test with:

adb shell
# vndk_meson
Hello from cpp