[Bug] Hailo8L Model Runtime Not Detected After PyInstaller Build on Raspberry Pi 5

General
1

Problem Summary

I’m experiencing a runtime issue when running a PyInstaller-built executable of my AI application that uses the Hailo8L accelerator and DeGirum tools on a Raspberry Pi 5 running Raspbian.

The application works perfectly when executed directly via Python (python person_recognition.py), but fails only after being packaged with PyInstaller.

Error:

degirum.exceptions.DegirumException: Model 'yolo11n_silu_coco--640x640_quant_hailort_hailo8l_1' does not have any supported runtime/device combinations that will work on this system.

System Context

  • Hardware: Raspberry Pi 5
  • OS: Raspbian (64-bit)
  • Acceleration: Hailo8L
  • AI SDK: DeGirum tools
  • Model: yolo11n_silu_coco--640x640_quant_hailort_hailo8l_1
  • Packaging Tool: PyInstaller (one-folder and one-file modes both tested)

What Works

  • Running the app directly using the Python interpreter loads the model and executes inference successfully using the Hailo8L device.
  • The Hailo runtime and DeGirum setup are correctly installed and functioning in the native environment.

What Fails

  • When the exact same code is packaged using PyInstaller, running the resulting binary throws the above DegirumException.
  • It appears the packaged app cannot detect or interface with the Hailo runtime/device.

My Hypothesis

  • PyInstaller might be omitting some essential shared libraries or runtime configs used by the Hailo runtime.
  • There may be environment variables or device detection logic that breaks inside the frozen PyInstaller environment.
  • DeGirum or Hailo may rely on dynamic linking or device initialization paths that aren’t preserved in the PyInstaller build.

What I’ve Tried

  • Running PyInstaller with:
    • --collect-all degirum
    • --add-binary for suspected .so files
    • --debug all to trace import and execution logs
  • Comparing os.environ and sys.path between native and packaged executions
  • Manually verifying that Hailo runtime libraries are present in the dist folder
2

Hi @AbnerDC
Can you please share what typing degirum sys-info in terminal returns?

3

Sure, this is the result

Devices:
HAILORT/HAILO8L:

  • ‘@Index’: 0
    Board Name: Hailo-8
    Device Architecture: HAILO8L
    Firmware Version: 4.20.0
    ID: ‘0000:01:00.0’
    Part Number: HM21LB1C2LAE
    Product Name: HAILO-8L AI ACC M.2 B+M KEY MODULE EXT TMP
    Serial Number: “HLDDLBB243900138\x10HM21LB1C2LAE”
    N2X/CPU:
  • ‘@Index’: 0
  • ‘@Index’: 1
    TFLITE/CPU:
  • ‘@Index’: 0
  • ‘@Index’: 1
    Software Version: 0.15.1
4

Thanks for providing this information. We have never tried PyInstaller before. We will see if we can replicate this. Your hypothesis about dynamic linking and missing libraries could be right.

5

Thanks, meanwhile could you suggest a tool to create a compiled python program that works well with degirum?

6

Hi @AbnerDC
Can you explain your use case and the motivation for this approach? It gives us a better idea on the best approach.

7

Sure, I already finish a people counting program made in python and raspberry pi 5.
Now I want to distribute this software in some other raspberry pi’s without exposing the code.

8

Hello @AbnerDC ,

To fix this issue, get PyInstaller to package everything for the degirum package by following these steps:

  1. Create hook-degirum.py in the current directory:
# hook-degirum.py
from PyInstaller.utils.hooks import collect_all

datas, binaries, hiddenimports = collect_all('degirum')
  1. Re-run the pyinstaller command with --additional-hooks-dir .

This will package all of the necessary plugin libraries to get PySDK to work through PyInstaller.

For example:
If your application is testVideoStream.py, you can run this command after creating the hook file:
pyinstaller --name testVideoStream --onedir --additional-hooks-dir . testVideoStream.py

Let me know if you have any issues!

2 Likes
9

Thanks for your response I’ll try in the weekend