Add support to release linux aarch64 wheels

[odidev]

Problem

On aarch64, pip install nnabla is giving the below the error-

ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement nnabla (from versions: none)

ERROR: No matching distribution found for nnabla

Resolution

On aarch64, pip install nnabla should download the wheels from PyPI.

@TomonobuTsujikawa and Team Please let me know your interest in releasing aarch64 wheels. To start with can you please suggest the steps/CI you are using for building the wheel.

[TomonobuTsujikawa]

Thank you for trying it!
Yes, as you pointed out, aarch64 is not released now, so anyone cannot install by pip.

But, I think you may be able to build from our source code.
Here is the build instructions from code:

• For nnabla (cpu only): https://github.com/sony/nnabla/blob/master/doc/build/build.md
• For nnabla-ext-cuda (+cuda): https://github.com/sony/nnabla-ext-cuda/blob/master/doc/build/build.md

Of course, you may need to install additional packages and/or change codes.

[odidev]

I have tried to build the code from the source using the steps mentioned here and the wheel is created successfully for aarch64 but it is taking a lot of time rather than downloading from PyPI and unpacking it. Also, installation from the source code requires additional dependencies to be installed.

It will be a great help if you can release nnabla Linux aarch64 wheels on PyPI.

[TomonobuTsujikawa]

Thank you! It's good news!
We need environment preparation and have to pass tests to support aarch64 officially.
But please let us investigate if we can support it.

[TomonobuTsujikawa]

We took some time, but we have released aarch64 wheel package in v1.27.0.
https://pypi.org/project/nnabla/#files
https://github.com/sony/nnabla/releases/tag/v1.27.0

I think the installation environment is limited because glibc2.31 is required, so we will improve it in future release.

[odidev]

@ TomonobuTsujikawa I have tried to install the wheel for aarch64 but it is giving the below issue :

# pip3 install nnabla 
ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement nnabla (from versions: none) 
ERROR: No matching distribution found for nnabla 

Python version output -

# python3 --version 
Python 3.9.13 

# pip3 --version 
pip 20.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.9) 

It looks that the issue is in the name of the wheel created and uploaded on PyPI. I have tried to run auditwheel but getting the below issue:

auditwheel repair nnabla-1.28.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux_2_31_aarch64.whl 
INFO:auditwheel.main_repair:Repairing nnabla-1.28.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux_2_31_aarch64.whl 
usage: auditwheel [-h] [-V] [-v] command ... 
auditwheel: error: cannot repair "nnabla-1.28.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux_2_31_aarch64.whl" to "manylinux_2_17_aarch64" ABI because of the presence of too-recent versioned symbols. You'll need to compile the wheel on an older toolchain. 

Can you please look into the issue and help me here?

[TomonobuTsujikawa]

Thank @odidev for detail description, it's very helpful for us!

I think you need to update pip, because pip supports PEP600 (manylinux_x_yy) from v20.3.
So, please try to update pip by: pip3 install -U pip.

[odidev]

@TomonobuTsujikawa Thanks for the help. I have updated the pip version and now the wheel is getting installed but when I am importing it. It is giving the below error:

>>> import nnabla 
2022-06-02 17:09:36,449 [nnabla][INFO]: Initializing CPU extension... 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/nnabla/__init__.py", line 34, in <module> 
    from .parameter import ( 
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/nnabla/parameter.py", line 29, in <module> 
    import nnabla.utils.nnabla_pb2 as nnabla_pb2 
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/nnabla/utils/nnabla_pb2.py", line 36, in <module> 
    _descriptor.FieldDescriptor( 
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages/google/protobuf/descriptor.py", line 560, in __new__ 
    _message.Message._CheckCalledFromGeneratedFile() 
TypeError: Descriptors cannot not be created directly.
If this call came from a _pb2.py file, your generated code is out of date and must be regenerated with protoc >= 3.19.0.
If you cannot immediately regenerate your protos, some other possible workarounds are:
1. Downgrade the protobuf package to 3.20.x or lower.
2. Set PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=python (but this will use pure-Python parsing and will be much slower). 
More information: https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/news/2022-05-06#python-updates 

If I downgrade the protobuf version to 3.20.1 then import is working fine. I have tried the second solution also Set PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=python (but this will use pure-Python parsing and will be much slower) but the error is same. Can you suggest how we can import it without doing anything other than installing nnabla from PyPI?

[TomonobuTsujikawa]

@odidev
This is caused by upgrading protobuf.
I think this PR is not permanent solution, but this will be used for next release: #1075

Please install protobuf by pip install "protobuf<=3.19.4" at this time.