Docker Compose Requires /dev/accel Devices Even Though NPU Is Documented as Optional

[arunimakanavu]

edge-ai-suites/health-and-life-sciences-ai-suite/multi_modal_patient_monitoring/docker-compose.yaml

Line 131 in da1e502

- "/dev/accel/accel0:/dev/accel/accel0"

Description

The system requirements documentation states that NPU hardware is optional for the Multi-Modal Patient Monitoring suite.

However, docker-compose.yaml unconditionally exposes accelerator devices:

devices:
  - /dev/dri
  - /dev/accel
  - /dev/accel/accel0

If /dev/accel/accel0 does not exist on the host, Docker fails at startup with:

error gathering device information while adding custom_device "/dev/accel/accel0":
no such file or directory

This prevents the stack from running on systems without NPU hardware.

Affected Services

The following services rely on accelerator device exposure:

• ai-ecg
• ppg
• 3dpose-estimation
• mdpnp
• patient-monitoring-aggregator (indirect dependency)

Since device mappings are unconditional, containers fail before any CPU fallback can occur.

Workaround

Commenting out the following lines in docker-compose.yaml allows the containers to run on systems without NPU (on an individual troubleshooting level):

# devices:
#   - /dev/dri
#   - /dev/accel
#   - /dev/accel/accel0

After removing these mappings, the stack starts successfully (CPU mode).

Additional Note

Systems with properly configured Intel iGPU drivers (/dev/dri) may not encounter this issue, as OpenVINO can use GPU acceleration. However, on systems without /dev/accel, the current configuration blocks container startup entirely.

There appears to be a mismatch between documentation (NPU optional) and compose configuration (NPU implicitly required).

[sachinkaushik]

The issue has been resolved. Kindly verify and let us know if anything else is required.

#1958

[arunimakanavu]

It seems to be working now.

Ref:

##############Using registry mode - fetching all images...
Using HOST_IP=192.168.18.203 for UI backend
No NPU devices configured in configs/device.env; running without NPU override
[+] up 7/7
 ✔ Container patient-monitoring-aggregator Running                                                                                                                                        0.0s
 ✔ Container metrics-collector             Recreated                                                                                                                                      2.0s
 ✔ Container patient-monitoring-assets     Exited                                                                                                                                         2.9s
 ✔ Container rppg                          Recreated                                                                                                                                      0.7s
 ✔ Container mdpnp                         Running                                                                                                                                        0.0s
 ✔ Container ai-ecg                        Recreated                                                                                                                                      0.6s
 ✔ Container 3dpose-estimation             Recreated                                                                                                                                      0.6s
===============================================
Multi-modal patient monitoring application is starting up.
Please access the UI at:       http://192.168.18.203:3000
===============================================

[jgespino]

@arunimakanavu Thanks for confirming, I'll go ahead and close the issue.

@sachinkaushik I appreciate the quick fix!