Libxcoder Documentation
Libxcoder is the software driver for NETINT Quadra Video Processing Units (VPU). It contains APIs and tools for video processing and Quadra device management.
Applications
After installation the following applications are installed:
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| init_rsrc | detect Quadra devices and create their resource entries in host's file system |
| ni_rsrc_list | list info about detected Quadra devices |
| ni_rsrc_mon | display performance related info about detected Quadra devices |
| ni_rsrc_namespace | manage NVMe configuration for Quadra devices |
| ni_rsrc_update | manage detected Quadra resource entries |
Additional options can be viewed by using the -h option.
init_rsrc
This application will initialize the Quadra VPU cards. To know if the cards have already been initialized, check the /dev/shm for the resources files
This needs to be run after a reboot. It is recommended to create a systemd process or another startup script.
ls /dev/shm/NI_*
To reinitize the cards, delete the NI_* files and re-run the init_rsrc command.
To run this command without requiring sudo the user needs to be apart of the disk group.
sudo usermod -aG disk $USER
Example Systemd
Libxcoder can automatically install systemd process on Ubuntu systems with using the quadra_quick_installer.sh available in the SDK release. Alternately systemd can be setup when manually install libxcoder by using the --enable-systemd flag.
The below is an example of a systemd process used with Ubuntu that can be used to initialize the Quadra VPU devices on startup.
- Use the below command to create the systemd file:
sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/nilibxcoder.service << EOF
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=true
#Quadra Product Line
ExecStart=-/usr/local/bin/init_rsrc -t 5
StandardOutput=journal
StandardError=journal
SyslogIdentifier=ni_libxcoder_devices
User=nvme
Group=nvme
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF
- Enable the systemd process
sudo systemctl enable nilibxcoder.service
- Manually start the systemd process
sudo systemctl start nilibxcoder.service
ni_rsrc_list
This application list detail information about the capabilities of all the initialized cards. It includes supported codecs, resolutions, filters, etc.
ni_rsrc_mon
This application will display various information about the VPU:
- Number of VPU detected
- Temperature and Power
- Firmware and Serial Number
- Utilization of the Decoder, Encoder, Scaler and AI Engine
Using the command with the -h option (ni_rsrc_mon -h) will also display the definition for the various values.
Example:
**************************************************
1 devices retrieved from current pool at start up
Wed Mar 12 09:28:16 2025 up 00:00:00 v5206s5r2
INDEX TEMP POWER FR SN
0 38 7647mW 5106rtr4 Q1A224A11DC065-0018
Num decoders: 1
INDEX LOAD MODEL_LOAD INST MEM SHARE_MEM P2P_MEM DEVICE
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 /dev/nvme1n1
Num encoders: 1
INDEX LOAD MODEL_LOAD INST MEM SHARE_MEM P2P_MEM DEVICE
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 /dev/nvme1n1
Num scalers: 1
INDEX LOAD MODEL_LOAD INST MEM SHARE_MEM P2P_MEM DEVICE
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 /dev/nvme1n1
Num AIs: 1
INDEX LOAD MODEL_LOAD INST MEM SHARE_MEM P2P_MEM DEVICE
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 /dev/nvme1n1
**************************************************
More detail status information about the VPU can be viewed with the -d option.
ni_rsrc_mon -d
Example:
**************************************************
1 devices retrieved from current pool at start up
Wed Mar 12 09:45:41 2025 up 00:00:00 v5206s5r2
INDEX TEMP POWER FR SN
0 38 7872mW 5106rtr4 Q1A224A11DC065-0018
Num decoders: 1
INDEX AvgCost FrameRate IDR InFrame OutFrame Width Height SID DEVICE NAMESPACE
0 2 29 4 372 372 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
1 2 29 4 372 372 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
2 2 29 4 372 372 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
3 2 29 4 372 372 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
4 2 29 4 372 372 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
5 2 29 4 371 371 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
6 2 29 4 372 371 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
7 2 29 4 371 371 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
8 2 29 4 371 371 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
9 2 29 4 371 371 1920 1080 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
Num encoders: 1
INDEX AvgCost FrameRate IDR UserIDR InFrame OutFrame BR AvgBR Width Height Format SID DEVICE NAMESPACE
0 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
1 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
2 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
3 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
4 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
5 2 29 4 0 367 366 2150640 3926770 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
6 2 29 4 0 368 367 2611392 3923186 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
7 2 29 4 0 367 366 2150640 3926770 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
8 2 29 4 0 367 366 2150640 3926770 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
9 2 29 4 0 367 366 2150640 3926770 1280 720 UNSUPPORT 0000 /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme1n1
**************************************************
ni_rsrc_namespace
This application is used to create multiple namespaces to be shared a Quadra Card across different VM, docker, kubernetes, etc.
ni_rsrc_update
This application is used to manage detected Quadra resource entries.