Cannot compile bazel needed for tensorflow-android

Question

I'm trying to explore the tensorflow android demo. I want to adapt the app using android studio.

However when I simply follow the instructions I get compilation errors no matter what I do:

Trying to compile tensorflow using bazel and NDK r12b:

$bazel build -c opt //tensorflow/examples/android:tensorflow_demo
ERROR: /home/myUser/libs/tensorflow_android/WORKSPACE:3:1: //external:io_bazel_rules_closure: no such attribute 'urls' in 'http_archive' rule.
ERROR: /home/myUser/libs/tensorflow_android/WORKSPACE:3:1: //external:io_bazel_rules_closure: missing value for mandatory attribute 'url' in 'http_archive' rule.
ERROR: com.google.devtools.build.lib.packages.BuildFileContainsErrorsException: error loading package '': Encountered error while reading extension file 'closure/defs.bzl': no such package '@io_bazel_rules_closure//closure': error loading package 'external': Could not load //external package.
INFO: Elapsed time: 0.129s

Trying to compile a newer version of bazel following this advice:

$bazel version
Build label: 0.2.3-jdk7 // This is my current version of bazel

via apt-get:

$sudo apt-get upgrade bazel
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
E: Unable to locate package bazel

from source (tried bazel-0.4.2 and bazel-0.5.0):

$./compile.sh 
INFO: You can skip this first step by providing a path to the bazel binary as second argument:
INFO:    ./compile.sh compile /path/to/bazel
🍃  Building Bazel from scratch
ERROR: JDK version (1.7) is lower than 1.8, please set $JAVA_HOME.

or

$bazel build //src:bazel
ERROR: /home/myUser/libs/bazel/bazel-0.4.2/tools/build_rules/genproto.bzl:45:16: Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/home/myUser/libs/bazel/bazel-0.4.2/tools/build_rules/genproto.bzl", line 42
        rule(gensrcjar_impl, attrs = {"src": at..."), <2 more arguments>), "_proto_compiler": attr.label(default = Label("//third_party/p..."), <4 more arguments>), "_jar": attr.label(default = Label("@bazel_tools//t..."), <4 more arguments>), "_jdk": attr.label(default = Label("@bazel_tools//t..."), ...)}, ..."})
    File "/home/myUser/libs/bazel/bazel-0.4.2/tools/build_rules/genproto.bzl", line 45, in rule
        attr.label(allow_files = proto_filetype, sing...)
allow_files should be a boolean or a filetype object.
ERROR: /home/myUser/libs/bazel/bazel-0.4.2/src/BUILD:130:1: error loading package 'src/main/protobuf': Extension file 'tools/build_rules/genproto.bzl' has errors and referenced by '//src:embedded_tools'.
ERROR: Loading failed; build aborted.
INFO: Elapsed time: 0.251s

switching aroung java-versions to see whether the bazel compiling issues come from there:

$sudo update-alternatives --config java
There are 4 choices for the alternative java (providing /usr/bin/java).

  Selection    Path                                            Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/bin/java          1074      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1071      manual mode
* 2            /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-oracle/jre/bin/java          1072      manual mode
  3            /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java   1069      manual mode
  4            /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-oracle/jre/bin/java          1074      manual mode

No luck so far :-/. Has anyone successfully compiled tensorflow for android from source?

What version of Tensorflow, NDK, bazel, java are required / compatible with each other? Do I really need bazel? (never worked with it anyway) Can't I just compile the android demo in android-studio like any other app?

I'm using Ubuntu 14.04, Cuda8.0, cudnn_v5.1, Titan X Pascal (not sure if these things matter)

Answer 1

Installing Bazel on Ubuntu can be done without compiling.

Follow all steps of the dedicated documentation: Install Bazel on Ubuntu