1️⃣ Ensure .gitignore is Correct

Since your venv/ folder is inside the project, make sure it's ignored in .gitignore:

# Ignore virtual environment
venv/

# Ignore dataset files (if downloading separately)
datasets/

# Ignore Jupyter Notebook checkpoints
.ipynb_checkpoints/

# Ignore logs and results
logs/
results/

# Ignore compiled Python files
__pycache__/
*.pyc
*.pyo
*.pyd

# Ignore model checkpoints and large files
*.pt
*.pth
*.onnx
models/*.pth

# Ignore system files
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

---

2️⃣ Verify requirements.txt is Complete

Your dependencies should be installed with:

pip install -r requirements.txt

To update requirements.txt if you installed new packages:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

---

3️⃣ Check Kaggle Setup

You have a datasets/ folder, but it looks empty. Using Kaggle download the datasets:

1. Install Kaggle API:

   pip install kaggle

2. Move your kaggle.json API key to:

   mkdir -p ~/.kaggle
   mv ~/Downloads/kaggle.json ~/.kaggle/
   chmod 600 ~/.kaggle/kaggle.json

3. Download datasets (example for COCO & KITTI):

   kaggle datasets download -d microsoft/coco
   unzip coco.zip -d datasets/coco/
   
   kaggle datasets download -d kitti/kitti-object-detection
   unzip kitti-object-detection.zip -d datasets/kitti/

4. Verify dataset files exist:

   ls datasets/coco/
   ls datasets/kitti/

---

4️⃣ Test Training & Inference Scripts

Run quick tests to make sure everything works properly.

✅ Check if PyTorch is installed correctly:

python -c "import torch; print(torch.__version__)"

✅ Test YOLOv8 Training

python train.py --model yolov8 --dataset coco

✅ Test DeepSORT Tracking

python inference.py --model deepsort --input sample_video.mp4

✅ Test Lane Detection

python inference.py --model lane_detection --input road_image.jpg

---

5️⃣ Run Jupyter Notebooks

Install Jupyter if not installed:

pip install jupyter notebook
jupyter notebook

Then open and verify:

• notebooks/deepsort_tracking.ipynb
• notebooks/lane_detection.ipynb
• notebooks/yolov8_training.ipynb

---