FPGA AI Suite Handbook

ID 863373
Date 11/21/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents

4.2.4. Installing OpenVINO™ Toolkit

The FPGA AI Suite requires the OpenVINO™ Toolkit 2024.6.
To prepare OpenVINO™ Toolkit for FPGA AI Suite:
  1. Install the required Toolkit components:

The installer might issue an error message that indicates the OpenCL is not installed and is needed for GPU operation of OpenVINO™ . You can safely ignore this error message. The FPGA AI Suite does not require OpenVINO™ GPU support.

Required Python Version

OpenVINO™ Toolkit 2024.6 supports only Python 3.12.

Verify your Python version with the following command:
python3.12 -V
This command should return output indicating the version that you are using. For example:
Python 3.12.10
If you do not have the required Python version installed, follow the instructions in the operating system requirements for your environment:

Installing Required OpenVINO™ Toolkit Components on Linux* Systems

FPGA AI Suite requires you to install the OpenVINO™ Runtime and OpenVINO™ Development Tools separately.

The location where you install the OpenVINO™ Runtime is often referred to as <openvino_installdir> in FPGA AI Suite documentation. Typically, this location is /opt/intel or /home/<user>/intel.

To install the required OpenVINO™ Toolkit components:
  1. Create a Python virtual environment and start it:
    1. Create a new directory and switch to it:
      mkdir ~/build-openvino-dev && cd ~/build-openvino-dev
    2. Create a Python virtual environment:
      python3.12 -m venv openvino_env
      
      source openvino_env/bin/activate
    3. Confirm that you are in the new Python virtual environment:
      python -V

      This command should return output indicating the version that you are using. For example:

      Python 3.12.10

  2. Install the OpenVINO™ 2024.6 Runtime:
    1. If you do not have an opt/intel folder, create one as follows:
      sudo mkdir /opt/intel
    2. If you do not have a ~/Downloads folder, create one as follows:
      mkdir ~/Downloads
    3. Go to your Downloads folder:
      cd ~/Downloads
    4. Download the OpenVINO™ 2024.6 Runtime archive file for your system, extract the files, and move them to the /opt/intel folder as follows:
      • Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* :
        curl -L https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/\
          repositories/openvino/packages/2024.6/linux/\
          l_openvino_toolkit_rhel8_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64.tgz \
          --output openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        tar -xf openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        sudo mv \
          l_openvino_toolkit_rhel8_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64 \
          /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0
      • Ubuntu* 20:
        curl -L https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/\
          repositories/openvino/packages/2024.6/linux/\
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu20_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64.tgz \
          --output openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        tar -xf openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        sudo mv \
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu20_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64 \
          /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0
      • Ubuntu* 22:
        curl -L https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/\
          repositories/openvino/packages/2024.6/linux/\
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu22_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64.tgz \
          --output openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        tar -xf openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        sudo mv \
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu22_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64 \
          /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0
      • Ubuntu* 24:
        curl -L https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/\
          repositories/openvino/packages/2024.6/linux/\
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu24_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64.tgz \
          --output openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        tar -xf openvino_2024.6.0.tgz
        
        sudo mv \
          l_openvino_toolkit_ubuntu24_2024.6.0.17404.4c0f47d2335_x86_64.tgz \
          /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0
    5. Install system dependencies required by the OpenVINO™ Runtime by running the provided script:
      • Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* :
        cd /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0/install_dependencies/
        
        sed -i -e 's|http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8-stream/AppStream|' \
        'https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/8/AppStream|' \
        ./install_openvino_dependencies.sh
        
        sed -i -e 's|yum install "\$iopt"|' \
        'yum install \${iopt:+\$iopt}|' \
        ./install_openvino_dependencies.sh
        
        sudo -E ./install_openvino_dependencies.sh
      • Ubuntu* Linux* :
        cd /opt/intel/openvino_2024.6.0/install_dependencies/
        
        sudo -E ./install_openvino_dependencies.sh
    6. Create a symbolic link:
      cd /opt/intel
      
      sudo ln -s openvino_2024.6.0 openvino_2024
      Important: If you have already installed a previous release of OpenVINO™ 2024, a symbolic link to the openvino_2024 folder might already exist. Unlink the previous link with the sudo unlink openvino_2024 command, and then re-run the commands in this step.
    7. Configure the OpenVINO™ Runtime environment variables with the following command:
      source /opt/intel/openvino_2024/setupvars.sh
  3. Install the OpenVINO™ Development Tools:
    1. Upgrade the Python pip command:
      python -m pip install --upgrade pip
    2. Install the openvino-dev package:
      pip install "openvino-dev[<frameworks>]==2024.6.0"

      Where <frameworks> is a comma-separated list of the deep learning frameworks that you want your OpenVINO™ development tools to support. The following values are supported: caffe, kaldi, onnx, pytorch, tensorflow, tensorflow2.

      For example, to install the OpenVINO™ development tools to support the Caffe, PyTorch*, and TensorFlow* frameworks, run the following command:
      pip install "openvino-dev[caffe, pytorch, tensorflow]==2024.6.0"
      Restriction: PyTorch 2.6.0 is not supported by the OpenVINO™ 2024.6.0 Open Model Zoo tools. Change your installed PyTorch version to 2.5.1 with the following commands:
      pip freeze | grep torch
      
      pip uninstall torch==2.6.0 torchvision==0.21.0
      
      pip install torch==2.5.1 torchvision==0.20.1 \
          --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu118
      Tip: This command might produce the following error message:
      ERROR: tensorflow 2.13.1 has requirement numpy<=1.24.3,>=1.22, but you'll have numpy 1.24.4 which is incompatible
      This error message is pip-specific indicating that some packages in the local Python environment do not conform to OpenVINO™ development tools requirements. You can safely ignore this warning message. The openvino-dev package is still successfully installed.
  4. Install OpenCV as follows:
    • On Red Hat* Enterprise Linux* systems, OpenCV is available from the CodeReady Linux Builder repository. You enabled the repository when you met the requirements outlined in Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System Requirements. Install OpenCV from the CodeReady Linux Build repository with the following commands:
      sudo yum update
      
      sudo yum install opencv opencv-devel
      
      pip3 install opencv-python
    • On Ubuntu* Linux systems, OpenCV is available in the default repositories. Install OpenCV with the following commands:
      sudo apt update
      
      sudo apt install libopencv-dev python3-opencv
      
      pip install opencv-python

    If you need a version of OpenCV optimized for your hardware, you might need to build OpenCV from source. For instructions, refer to "Approach #2: Build OpenCV against specific version of OpenVINO™ " section of OpenCV usage with OpenVINO .

    You must configure the OpenVINO™ environment each time you want to use the OpenVINO™ Toolkit. For convenience, you can add the configuration to your .bashrc file. For details, refer to Setting Required Environment Variables.

Installing Required OpenVINO™ Toolkit Components on Windows* Systems

If you plan to run the FPGA AI Suite on a Windows* operating system, install the required OpenVINO™ Toolkit components by following the instructions provided in Install OpenVINO™ Runtime on Windows* from an Archive File at the OpenVINO™ documentation web site at the following URL:

https://docs.openvino.ai/2024/get-started/install-openvino/install-openvino-archive-windows.html

You must configure the OpenVINO™ environment each time you want to use the OpenVINO™ Toolkit. For convenience, you can add the configuration to your .bashrc file. For details, refer to Setting Required Environment Variables.

Next Step

After installing OpenVINO™ toolkit, continue your installation with the steps in Installing Quartus Prime Pro Edition Software.