snapdragon setup

A guide on how to setup a programming environment for the Open-Q 820 (APQ8096) development kit on Ubuntu. All of the following guidelines have been tested under Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (64-bit).

Enabling on-device developer options

Please note that on Android 4.2 and newer, the Developer options menu is hidden by default. To make it available, go to Settings > About phone and tap Build number seven times. Return to the previous screen to find Developer options.

Once in Settings > Developer options, make sure to:

• enable USB debugging in the Debugging section;
• select MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) under Select USB Configuration in the Networking section.

Android tools

First and foremost, ensure that the gcc compiler, make and other basic tools are installed by running sudo apt-get install build-essential.

The installation of the following tools is required:

• Android Debug Bridge (adb): sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb;
• fastboot: sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot;
• Android NDK: download the latest version for Linux and extract it using sudo unzip NDK_PACKAGE_NAME -d EXTRACT_DIR. For example, if the package's name is android-ndk-r14b-linux-x86_64.zip and /opt/ is the target directory, sudo unzip android-ndk-r14b-linux-x86_64.zip -d /opt/ should produce the desired results.

In order to avoid starting adb's server as root:

• create a file named /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules;
• add SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="05c6", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev" to its content.

ATTR{idVendor} specifies the unique vendor ID corresponding to Qualcomm, MODE specifies read/write permissions and GROUP defines the device node's ownership. This procedure can be completed with the following command: echo SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="05c6", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev" | sudo tee --append /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules.

Exporting a variable named ANDROID_NDK in ~/.bash_profile pointing to Android NDK's installation directory is recommended to avoid writing its path recurrently, for consistency when writing scripts and, finally, because some of the scripts hosted in this GitHub page rely on its existance to function. For example, echo >> ~/.bash_profile && echo "export ANDROID_NDK=/opt/android-ndk-r14b" >> ~/.bash_profile would suffice if Android NDK's installation directory were /opt/android-ndk-r14b.

Additionally, and especially if the development board does not include a display, it might be useful to install one of the numerous applications that allow viewing and visually controlling Android devices directly from a computer. Vysor is one such example.

Qualcomm SDKs

Qualcomm provides programmers with a set of libraries, the Symphony System Manager SDK, to allow for tighter control over the various compute units (i.e. CPU, GPU and DSP) within their processors. Namely, it includes resources for task scheduling, heterogeneous offload, and power and thermal management. To use the Symphony SDK, simply:

• download the latest version for Linux;
• install it with sudo dpkg -i SYMPHONY_PACKAGE_NAME. For example, if the file is called libsymphony-1.1.2.deb, then sudo dpkg -i libsymphony-1.1.2.deb should be the command to issue. This will decompress the libraries to /opt/Qualcomm/Symphony/SYMPHONY_VERSION/ (e.g. /opt/Qualcomm/Symphony/1.1.2/);
• verify the installation by following the instructions described in the provided documentation which should be available in /opt/Qualcomm/Symphony/SYMPHONY_VERSION/docs/. cmake version 2.8.12 or above is required: sudo apt-get install cmake.

The Symphony SDK includes precompiled dynamic libraries for a multitude of platforms. On Android, it provides, among others, a CPU+GPU+DSP library which supports all compute units, including the Hexagon DSP. However, support is only provided in 32-bit mode (AArch32) and requires Qualcomm's Hexagon SDK:

• download the latest version for Linux;
• install it with sudo ./HEXAGON_PACKAGE_NAME. For example, if the file is called qualcomm_hexagon_sdk_3_1_eval.bin, then sudo ./qualcomm_hexagon_sdk_3_1_eval.bin should be the command to issue. If the following error occurs: An internal LaunchAnywhere application error has occured and this application cannot proceed. (LAX), unsetting the PS1 environment variable, or changing it using export PS1=">" should solve the issue. For consistency, it is recommended to install this SDK to /opt/Qualcomm/ as well;
• install Ubuntu's 32-bit compatibility libraries: sudo apt-get install lib32z1 lib32ncurses5;
• source /opt/Qualcomm/Hexagon_SDK/HEXAGON_VERSION/setup_sdk_env.source to set-up the local environment. For example, source /opt/Qualcomm/Hexagon_SDK/3.1/setup_sdk_env.source. To avoid doing this repeatedly for every shell session, add the previous command to ~/.bash_profile. For the example given echo >> ~/.bash_profile && echo "source /opt/Qualcomm/Hexagon_SDK/3.1/setup_sdk_env.source 1>/dev/null" >> ~/.bash_profile should do it.

Useful links

Additional information can be found in the Android Developers' website and in Nicolas Bernaerts' website.