Prepare a Linux host and Android device for ExecuTorch Vulkan

Linux host architecture

You’ll run Meta Llama 3.2 1B Instruct directly on a Vivo X300 Pro or similar Android phone with ExecuTorch, using the phone GPU through the Vulkan backend.

You’ll use a Linux host for the following:

• Model export
• Quantization
• Graph lowering and partitioning
• Android cross-compilation
• adb deployment

The Linux host doesn’t need CUDA, ROCm, or a working Vulkan GPU.

The following diagram shows what you’ll run on the Linux host:

Linux host architecture for the ExecuTorch Vulkan workflow

Install Android SDK and NDK on the host

You can install the Android tools entirely from the Linux command line. Use Google’s Android command-line tools and sdkmanager to install the following components:

• Android SDK Platform-Tools
• Android SDK Command-line Tools
• CMake 3.31.6
• Android NDK r28c (28.2.13676358)

If you already installed these components with Android Studio, skip to Set Android environment variables .

Install the command-line tools

Install the host packages:

    

        
        
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential curl git unzip openjdk-17-jre-headless python3.12-dev python3.12-venv

    

Set the SDK location for the current terminal session:

    

        
        
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/Sdk"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$PATH"
mkdir -p "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest"

    

Download the pinned Linux command-line tools package and verify its SHA-256 checksum:

    

        
        
export ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_VERSION="15859902"
export ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_ARCHIVE="/tmp/commandlinetools-linux-${ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_VERSION}_latest.zip"
export ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_TMP="$(mktemp -d)"

curl -fL \
  "https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-${ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_VERSION}_latest.zip" \
  -o "$ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_ARCHIVE"

printf '%s  %s\n' \
  "4e4c464f145a7512b57d088ac6c278c03c9eea610886b35a5e0804e74eedf583" \
  "$ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_ARCHIVE" | sha256sum --check

    

The checksum command should report OK.

Extract the tools into the directory layout expected by sdkmanager:

    

        
        
unzip -q "$ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_ARCHIVE" -d "$ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_TMP"
cp -R "$ANDROID_CLI_TOOLS_TMP/cmdline-tools/." \
  "$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/"

sdkmanager --version

    

Install the Android packages

Review and accept the Android SDK licenses:

    

        
        
sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" --licenses

    

Install the package versions that you’ll use:

    

        
        
sdkmanager --sdk_root="$ANDROID_HOME" \
  "platform-tools" \
  "ndk;28.2.13676358" \
  "cmake;3.31.6"

    

The NDK supplies the Android cross-compilation toolchain. The Android SDK CMake package also includes Ninja and keeps both build tools under the SDK directory.

Set Android environment variables

Set the SDK, NDK, and build-tool paths for the current terminal session:

    

        
        
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/Android/Sdk"
export ANDROID_NDK="$ANDROID_HOME/ndk/28.2.13676358"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="$ANDROID_HOME/cmake/3.31.6/bin:$PATH"

    

These variables remain set until you close the terminal.

The SDK and NDK are now located at:

    

        
        
$HOME/Android/Sdk
$HOME/Android/Sdk/ndk/28.2.13676358

    

Verify the installed tools and NDK layout:

    

        
        
echo "$ANDROID_HOME"
echo "$ANDROID_NDK"
adb --version
cmake --version
ninja --version
test -f "$ANDROID_NDK/NOTICE" && echo "NDK OK"
test -f "$ANDROID_NDK/build/cmake/android.toolchain.cmake" && echo "Toolchain OK"

    

Connect to the Android device over ADB

If adb devices shows no permissions, add the user to plugdev, install the generic Android udev helpers, and reload the rules:

    

        
        
sudo usermod -aG plugdev "$USER"
sudo apt install -y android-sdk-platform-tools-common
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger
newgrp plugdev

    

The tested device reported this USB ID:

    

        
        
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 2d95:6001 vivo vivo X300 Pro

    

If the default rules aren’t enough, add a rule specific to your device. The following rule is specific to Vivo:

    

        
        
sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/51-vivo-android.rules >/dev/null <<'EOF'
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2d95", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev", TAG+="uaccess"
EOF

sudo chmod 644 /etc/udev/rules.d/51-vivo-android.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

    

Then, restart adb and accept the RSA prompt on the phone:

    

        
        
adb kill-server
adb start-server
adb devices

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        10AFB40J6Q0031C    device

        
    

Verify Vulkan support on the Android device

Check the Vulkan implementation:

    

        
        
adb shell getprop ro.hardware.vulkan

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        
mali

    

Then, verify the relevant Android features:

    

        
        
adb shell pm list features | grep -i vulkan

    

The output is similar to:

    

        
        feature:android.hardware.vulkan.compute
feature:android.hardware.vulkan.level=1
feature:android.hardware.vulkan.version=4206592
feature:android.software.vulkan.deqp.level=132711169

        
    

Ensure that the device advertises android.hardware.vulkan.compute.

vulkan_renderengine: false from SurfaceFlinger doesn’t block application-side Vulkan compute.

What you’ve accomplished and what’s next

You’ve now prepared the Linux host and connected to the Android device.

Next, you’ll install ExecuTorch and download the model on the host.