conda package for newer m1/m2 mac

[taDachs]

Hello there,
we are using biorbd (+ bioviz + bioptim) in a course and one student is using an M1 or M2 macbook. Conda doesn't seem to contain packages for that architecture, only for x86. is this assumption correct?

I am currently trying to work around it by building the libraries in a docker container from source, but it complicates the setup immensely.

Are there plans for releasing a ARM version? I would be willing to help with that

[pariterre]

Hello!
I am happily surprise to learn that biorbd is used in a lecture!

We tried really hard to push for newer Mac, but I could not find a way... conda-force did not seem to have the resources at the time to compile to full chain (including casadi, rbdl, eigen, etc), so biorbd could finally be compiled... I could a look again soon, maybe now it is possible. I unfortunately cannot garanty that it is going to work as I failed twice already

In any cases, if you need/want, we can setup a zoom call so I can help you compiling everything needed

[taDachs]

I have a working Dockerfile for compiling it on arm (using multiplatform builds with docker buildx and qemu):

FROM ubuntu:jammy
ARG USERNAME=hcr
ARG USER_UID=1000
ARG USER_GID=$USER_UID

ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=NONINTERACTIVE

# fix build of libc for arm (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/78105004/docker-build-fails-because-unable-to-install-libc-bin)
RUN rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/libc-bin.* && \
   apt-get clean && \
   apt-get update && \
   apt-get install libc-bin && \
   rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

# Create the user
RUN groupadd --gid $USER_GID $USERNAME \
   && useradd --uid $USER_UID --gid $USER_GID -m $USERNAME \
   #
   # [Optional] Add sudo support. Omit if you don't need to install software after connecting.
   && apt-get update \
   && apt-get install -y sudo \
   && echo $USERNAME ALL=\(root\) NOPASSWD:ALL > /etc/sudoers.d/$USERNAME \
   && chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/$USERNAME \
   && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

RUN apt-get update \
   && apt-get upgrade -y \
   && DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y python3-pip ripgrep git git-lfs tldr curl libgl1-mesa-dev python3-venv cmake wget libstdc++-11-dev python3-tk \
   && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*


USER $USERNAME
WORKDIR /home/$USERNAME

# install micromamba
RUN wget -qO- https://micromamba.snakepit.net/api/micromamba/linux-aarch64/latest | tar -xvj bin/micromamba \
   && ./bin/micromamba shell init -s bash

RUN echo 'eval "$($HOME/bin/micromamba shell hook -s posix)"' >> /home/$USERNAME/.bashrc


# install conda deps
RUN ./bin/micromamba install -n base -y -c conda-forge python-graphviz vtk rbdl tinyxml ipopt scipy swig pyomeca ezc3d matplotlib pandas numpy casadi

# build biorbb
RUN git clone https://github.com/pyomeca/biorbd.git && \
   export CONDA_PREFIX=/home/$USERNAME/.local/share/mamba && \
   cd biorbd && \
   mkdir -p build && \
   cd build && \
   cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$CONDA_PREFIX  -DMATH_LIBRARY_BACKEND="Casadi" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_TESTS=OFF -DMODULE_ACTUATORS=ON -DMODULE_KALMAN=ON -DMODULE_MUSCLES=ON -DBUILD_EXAMPLE=OFF -DBINDER_PYTHON3=ON .. && \
   make install -j8


# set shell to bash
ENV SHELL=/bin/bash
SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
CMD ["/bin/bash"]


# install bioviz
RUN git clone https://github.com/pyomeca/bioviz.git && \
   cd bioviz && \
   ~/bin/micromamba run python3 setup.py install

# install bioptim
RUN git clone https://github.com/pyomeca/bioptim.git && \
   cd bioptim && \
   ~/bin/micromamba run python3 setup.py install

RUN echo 'micromamba activate' >> /home/$USERNAME/.bashrc

So far biorbd is the only package that really has to be compiled for arm, bioviz and bioptim are pure python packages so they shouldn't really be a problem.

I can try opening a PR for running a build in the CI for arm based macs.