Installation Guide for pylon 8 Software Suite for Linux ======================================================== System Requirements =================== * x86_64 CPU: Latest Intel Core i5 (or better) or equivalent. * aarch64 CPU: Armv8-A with AArch64 support. ARM processors used on NVIDIA Jetson modules (or better) or equivalent are recommended. * Memory: Minimum 4 GB of available RAM. 8 GB or more of available RAM are recommended. * Disk type: SSD is recommended. * Disk space: Minimum 2 GB of free disk space for installation. Note ---- Depending on the following aspects, higher system requirements may be necessary: * Number of cameras used * Resolution and/or acquisition frame rate of the camera * Types or number of pylon vTools used * Use of pylon AI (see below for detailed requirements) pylon AI System Requirements ============================ * x86_64 CPU: Latest Intel Core i5 (or better) or equivalent. * Memory: Minimum 8 GB of available RAM. 16 GB or more of available RAM are recommended. * Disk type: SSD is recommended. * Disk space: Minimum 50 GB of free disk space for installation. The space required for the model repository depends on the size and number of models you plan to deploy. Models can range from a few megabytes to several gigabytes each. * GPU models: All NVIDIA models matching architectures mentioned here: https://docs.nvidia.com/deeplearning/frameworks/support-matrix/index.html * CUDA version: 12+ * GPU cards: Examples of suitable cards include NVIDIA RTX A5000, NVIDIA RTX A2000 Laptop GPU, NVIDIA Jetson Xavier NX, NVIDIA Tesla T4, etc. Installation of the Basler pylon Software Suite ================================================ To install the pylon Software Suite for Linux, you need the correct installation package for your architecture. Basler provides packages for x86_64 and arm64 platforms. If you're using a Debian-based Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu) you can choose one of the corresponding Debian packages provided with this pylon release. Alternatively, you can always use the tar.gz files, which will also work for Linux distributions not based on Debian. Note ---- To use the pylon Viewer, you must install the latest Mesa OpenGL driver for your system. On Debian-based platforms, you also need to install the following packages: libgl1-mesa-dri, libgl1-mesa-glx, libxcb-xinerama0, libxcb-xinput0, libxcb-cursor0 Installation Using Debian Packages ================================== The Debian package will always install the pylon Software Suite in the /opt/pylon directory. On many Debian-based Linux distributions, you can install the Debian package by double-clicking the file. Alternatively, follow these these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the pylon Debian package. 2. Install the Debian packages: sudo apt-get install ./pylon_*.deb ./codemeter*.deb During the installation, an environment variable required for pylon GenTL producers and a permission file for Basler USB cameras are installed automatically. For this to take effect, you need to log out and log in again to your Linux system as well as unplug and replug all USB cameras. Installation of the CodeMeter Runtime ------------------------------------- To use pylon vTools, the CodeMeter runtime must be installed first. The CodeMeter runtime is available as Debian package and is archived into a tar.gz package together with the pylon Software Suite Debian package. On many Debian-based Linux distributions, you can install it by double-clicking the file. Alternatively, follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the CodeMeter Debian package. 2. Install the package: sudo apt-get install ./codemeter*.deb CoaXPress Cameras (x86_64 only) ------------------------------- To operate CoaXPress cameras, a specific driver must be installed first. After the installation of the pylon Software Suite, this driver can be found in /opt/pylon/share/pylon/menable-dkms_*.deb. On many Debian-based Linux distributions, you can install it by double-clicking the file. Alternatively, use the following command: sudo apt-get install /opt/pylon/share/pylon/menable-dkms_*.deb You need to reboot your system in order to load the driver. Installation of the Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 (Optional) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 is an optional component that contains libraries for encoding MPEG-4 video files. You need to download this package separately from the Basler website in order to be able to create MPEG-4 files with pylon. On many Debian-based Linux distributions, you can install it by double-clicking the file. Alternatively, follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 Debian package. 2. Install the package: sudo apt-get install ./pylon-supplementary-package-for-mpeg-4_*.deb Installation using tar.gz files =============================== This installation procedure assumes that you are going to install the pylon Software Suite in the /opt/pylon directory. If you choose to install in a different directory, you'll have to modify the directory names accordingly. Note: Root permissions are needed to write to /opt. To install the pylon Software Suite in /opt/pylon follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the pylon setup tar.gz archive that you downloaded from the Basler website. 2. Extract the setup tar.gz archive into a directory of your choice (replace ./pylon_setup if you want to extract into a different directory): mkdir ./pylon_setup tar -C ./pylon_setup -xzf ./pylon-*_setup.tar.gz 3. Change to the directory into which you extracted the setup tar.gz: cd ./pylon_setup 4. Extract the pylon SDK into /opt/pylon: sudo tar -C /opt/pylon -xzf ./pylon-*.tar.gz 5. Change access rights of the pylon folder: sudo chmod 755 /opt/pylon Installation of the CodeMeter Runtime ------------------------------------- To use pylon vTools, the CodeMeter runtime must be installed first. The CodeMeter runtime is available as Debian and RPM package under, e.g.,: opt/pylon/share/pylon On many Debian-based Linux distributions, you can install it by double-clicking the file. Alternatively, follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the CodeMeter Debian package. 2. Install the package: sudo apt-get install ./codemeter*.deb USB3 Vision cameras ------------------- In order to use USB3 Vision cameras, you also need to install the udev-rules to set up permissions for Basler USB cameras by calling: sudo /opt/pylon/share/pylon/setup-usb.sh After that, unplug and replug all USB cameras to get the udev rules applied. CoaXPress cameras (x86_64 only) ------------------------------- For operating CoaXPress cameras, a driver must be installed first. After the installation of the pylon Software Suite, this driver can be found in /opt/pylon/share/pylon/menable-driver-*.tar.gz. To install the CoaXPress driver, follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory where you want to extract the driver to. 2. Extract the driver archive: sudo tar -C ./ -xzf /opt/pylon/share/pylon/menable-driver-*.tar.gz 3. Follow the instructions in the ./menable-driver-*/linux/INSTALL file. You need to reboot your system in order to load the driver. When starting an application (e.g., the pylon Viewer) that requires CoaXPress support, the GENICAM_GENTLXX_PATH environment variable, i.e., GENICAM_GENTL64_PATH for 64-bit systems, must be set. The /opt/pylon/share/pylon/README document explains how to set this variable. Installation of the Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 (optional) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 is an optional component that contains libraries for encoding MPEG-4 video files. You need to download this package separately from the Basler website in order to be able to create MPEG-4 files with pylon. To install the Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 in /opt/pylon follow these steps: 1. Change to the directory that contains the pylon Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 setup tar.gz archive that you downloaded from the Basler website. 2. Extract the setup tar.gz archive into a directory of your choice (replace ./mpeg4_setup if you want to extract into a different directory): mkdir ./mpeg4_setup tar -C ./mpeg4_setup -xzf ./pylon-supplementary-package-for-mpeg-4_*_setup.tar.gz 3. Change to the directory into which you extracted the setup tar.gz: cd ./mpeg4_setup 4. Extract the Basler Supplementary Package for MPEG-4 into /opt/pylon: sudo tar -C /opt/pylon -xzf ./pylon-supplementary-package-for-mpeg-4_*.tar.gz Installation of the pylon Supplementary Package for pylon AI (optional) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The pylon Supplementary Package for pylon AI is an optional component for the pylon 8.x Software Suite that is required to run AI vTools and the pylon AI Agent. You need to download this package separately from the Basler website. For system requirements and installation instructions, refer to the Install document that is included in the supplementary package. Usage ===== For further information about how to use the pylon Software Suite and how to configure cameras and the host system, please read the README document that will be installed here: /opt/pylon/share/pylon/README