DEPENDENCY_CONFLICT.md

Dependency Conflict: OpenPI vs OpenVLA

Problem

OpenPI and OpenVLA cannot coexist in the same Python environment due to incompatible CUDA/PyTorch requirements:

OpenVLA Requirements

• torch==2.2.0 (CUDA 12.1)
• nvidia-cudnn-cu12==8.9.2.26
• transformers==4.40.1
• draccus==0.8.0

OpenPI Requirements

• torch>=2.7.0 (CUDA 12.8)
• nvidia-cudnn-cu12>=9.1.1
• transformers==4.48.1
• draccus>=0.10.0

The Core Issue

When both are installed together:

1. OpenVLA downgrades torch from 2.9.1 → 2.2.0
2. OpenVLA downgrades cuDNN from 9.10 → 8.9
3. OpenPI's JAX components are compiled against cuDNN 9.1+ but runtime loads cuDNN 8.9/9.0
4. Result: "Loaded runtime CuDNN library: 9.0.0 but source was compiled with: 9.1.1"

This causes OpenPI initialization to fail with ImportError: initialization failed.

Solution Options

Option 1: Separate Containers (Recommended for Production)

Run OpenPI and OpenVLA in separate Docker containers or Hugging Face Spaces:

• OpenPI Space: Uses current setup with torch>=2.7.0
• OpenVLA Space: Separate space with torch==2.2.0

Option 2: Conditional Installation

Install only one model at a time based on environment variable:

if [ "$MODEL" = "openvla" ]; then
    pip install git+https://github.com/openvla/openvla.git
else
    pip install git+https://github.com/tan7271/OpenPiRoboEval.git
fi

Option 3: Virtual Environments (Local Development)

Use separate conda/venv environments:

# OpenPI environment
conda create -n openpi python=3.11
conda activate openpi
# ... install OpenPI deps

# OpenVLA environment  
conda create -n openvla python=3.11
conda activate openvla
# ... install OpenVLA deps

Current Implementation

This repository currently supports OpenPI only. OpenVLA has been removed from:

• requirements.txt (removed peft, timm, accelerate that were added for OpenVLA)
• setup.sh (removed OpenVLA git installation)
• app.py (removed OpenVLA from MODEL_REGISTRY)

Re-enabling OpenVLA

To create a separate OpenVLA-only deployment:

1. Revert to commit before OpenPI was added
2. Use these versions in requirements.txt:

torch==2.2.0
torchvision==0.17.0
torchaudio==2.2.0
transformers==4.40.1

3. Add back OpenVLA installation to setup.sh
4. Keep only OpenVLA in MODEL_REGISTRY

References

• OpenPI repo: https://github.com/tan7271/OpenPiRoboEval
• OpenVLA repo: https://github.com/openvla/openvla
• Related issue: CUDA library version mismatches causing initialization failures