Installation

Qualcomm® Intelligent Multimedia SDK (QIM SDK) is an AI framework designed to build Vision AI pipelines. It runs on Qualcomm’s powerful and power-efficient IoT platforms, providing GStreamer-based plugins for multimedia, computer vision (CV), and artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate seamless application development.

QIM SDK on Yocto
QIM SDK on Ubuntu

Select the appropriate Kit Name to update the Qualcomm Linux software.

Obtain Prebuilt Images

This section is for developers who want to upgrade the software on their Qualcomm hardware devices without building the images from source. It provides direct download links to pre-built flashable images for supported development kits, so you can quickly get the latest software onto your device.Pre-built binaries are hosted in Qualcomm software release archives on CodeLinaro.

Image variants

Prebuilts are generated for two image types. Choose the one that best fits your needs.

qcom-multimedia-image — Built entirely from open-source components.
qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image — Includes Qualcomm’s closed-source proprietary components in addition to the open-source base.

SoC	Kit Name	Distro	Binaries Download Link
QCS6490	Qualcomm Dragonwing™ RB3 Gen 2 Core Kit	`qcom-distro`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image
		`qcom-distro-sota`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image
IQ9	Qualcomm Dragonwing™ IQ-9075 Evaluation Kit	`qcom-distro`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image
		`qcom-distro-sota`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image
IQ8	Qualcomm Dragonwing™ IQ-8275 Evaluation Kit	`qcom-distro`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image
		`qcom-distro-sota`	qcom-multimedia-image · qcom-multimedia-proprietary-image

Flash the device

Once you’ve downloaded the flashable image, write it to the device using QDL, Qualcomm’s utility for communicating with devices in Emergency Download (EDL) mode. See Flash with QDL for the full procedure — installing QDL, putting the device into EDL mode, and running qdl to flash the image.

SDK

The SDK provides a cross-development toolchain that lets you compile applications for your target device without being tied to a specific image build. Download the prebuilt SDK from CodeLinaro.See Yocto Build for instructions on installing the SDK and compiling applications on your host machine.

Prerequisites

Make sure your Dragonwing device has been set up with Ubuntu and you have shell access.
Download Ubuntu on Qualcomm IoT Platforms and Select Your Device.

QIM SDK 2.0 is not available on Ubuntu in this release. See the release notes to learn more.

Add Qualcomm PPA

Update package metadata and add the Qualcomm Ubuntu PPA.

sudo apt update
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-qcom-iot/qcom-ppa

Install GStreamer core components

Install the required GStreamer tools and base multimedia packages.

sudo apt install -y \
  gstreamer1.0-tools \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
  gstreamer1.0-libav

Install Qualcomm hardware-accelerated GStreamer plugins

Install the Qualcomm GStreamer plugin package.

sudo apt install -y \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-qcom

Install AI runtime and inference components

Install AI runtime packages and developer tools required for inference workflows.

sudo apt install -y \
  tensorflow-lite-qcom-apps \
  libqnn-dev \
  libsnpe-dev

Validate QIM SDK plugins on device

Verify that Qualcomm-specific GStreamer plugins are available after installation.

gst-inspect-1.0 | grep qti

After installation, you should see Qualcomm-specific GStreamer plugins listed.

Install optional developer packages

Use the following optional packages based on your development or deployment needs.

Multimedia acceleration and system integration

Install packages for FastCV, DMA buffer heap integration, and sensor test applications.

sudo apt install -y \
  qcom-fastcv-binaries-dev \
  qcom-libdmabufheap-dev \
  qcom-sensors-test-apps

Utilities and media tools

Install common utilities used during media development, debugging, and validation.

sudo apt install -y \
  ffmpeg \
  net-tools \
  pulseaudio-utils \
  selinux-utils \
  unzip \
  v4l-utils \
  qnn-tools \
  snpe-tools

Sample applications and Python examples

Install sample applications and Python examples for quick validation and development.

sudo apt install -y \
  gstreamer1.0-qcom-sample-apps \
  gstreamer1.0-qcom-python-examples

Wayland and display support (server only)

Install display and Wayland-related packages for systems that require GUI or compositor support.

sudo apt install -y \
  qcom-adreno1 \
  weston-autostart \
  xwayland

Overview

Supported AI Models

Plugins

Advanced Topics

Installation

Obtain Prebuilt Images

Image variants

Flash the device

SDK

Prerequisites

Installation

​Obtain Prebuilt Images

​Image variants

​Flash the device

​SDK

​Prerequisites

​Installation

Obtain Prebuilt Images

Image variants

Flash the device

SDK

Prerequisites

Installation