error: Gtk* backend requires pygtk to be installed

Community matplotlib-users
1

Hi,

I’m trying to run a demo example,
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/plot_directive/mpl_toolkits/axes_grid/figures/demo_axes_grid.py

ran into this problem saying pygtk was needed:

$ curl http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/plot_directive/mpl_toolkits/axes_grid/figures/demo_axes_grid.py > demo_axes_grid.py

$ python demo_axes_grid.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demo_axes_grid.py”, line 1, in
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py”, line 78, in
new_figure_manager, draw_if_interactive, show = pylab_setup()

File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/init.py”, line 25, in pylab_setup
globals(),locals(),[backend_name])
File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtkagg.py”, line 10, in 

from matplotlib.backends.backend_gtk import gtk, FigureManagerGTK, FigureCanvasGTK,\

File “/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtk.py”, line 11, in 

raise ImportError("Gtk* backend requires pygtk to be installed.")

ImportError: Gtk* backend requires pygtk to be installed.

Then I tried to install pygtk:

$ pip install pygtk

Downloading/unpacking pygtk
Running setup.py egg_info for package pygtk
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 14, in
File “/Users/michaelanderson/root/mikeWork/2010June/temp/build/pygtk/setup.py”, line 22, in 

    from dsextras import get_m4_define, getoutput, have_pkgconfig, \
ImportError: No module named dsextras
Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
Traceback (most recent call last):

File “”, line 14, in

File “/Users/michaelanderson/root/mikeWork/2010June/temp/build/pygtk/setup.py”, line 22, in 

from dsextras import get_m4_define, getoutput, have_pkgconfig, \

ImportError: No module named dsextras

···

Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1
Storing complete log in /Users/michaelanderson/.pip/pip.log

Ok, then I tried to install dsextras:
$ pip install dsextras
Downloading/unpacking dsextras
Could not find any downloads that satisfy the requirement dsextras

No distributions at all found for dsextras
Storing complete log in /Users/michaelanderson/.pip/pip.log

What is this obscure package (dsextras) and is it really necessary to run the shared axes demo?

Mike

2

Hi Mike,

I tried to run it on windows.

Got error

D:\download\python>demo_axes_grid.py

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “D:\download\python\demo_axes_grid.py”, line 2, in 

from demo_image import get_demo_image

ImportError: No module named demo_image

Went looking on examples page and found there was a file name
demo_image.py

However for whatever reason the source code was not downloadable (404
error), so I copied it off the html page.
After that the example ran fine under windows, … I have never
installed anything called ‘dsextras’ and don’t know what it is.
However it doesn’t look like a gtk GUI to me., a quick check of the
code reveals no gtk type commands or imports?
I’d be questioning your configuration of matplotlib, there should be a
rc file somewhere, maybe you (or your distro) have set the backend to
gtk by default?
I don’t have a system here without gtk installed, that I could test
example runs without it installed - sorry.
(what distro and what’s a pip command?)

  • Steve
···

http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/axes_grid/demo_image.html

Hi,

I’m trying to run a demo example,

http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/plot_directive/mpl_toolkits/axes_grid/figures/demo_axes_grid.py

ran into this problem saying pygtk was needed:

$ curl http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/plot_directive/mpl_toolkits/axes_grid/figures/demo_axes_grid.py

demo_axes_grid.py

$ python
demo_axes_grid.py

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “demo_axes_grid.py”, line 1, in 

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

File
“/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py”,
line 78, in 

new_figure_manager, draw_if_interactive, show = pylab_setup()

File
“/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/init.py”,
line 25, in pylab_setup

globals(),locals(),[backend_name])

File
“/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtkagg.py”,
line 10, in 

from matplotlib.backends.backend_gtk import gtk, FigureManagerGTK,

FigureCanvasGTK,\

File
“/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_gtk.py”,
line 11, in 

raise ImportError("Gtk* backend requires pygtk to be installed.")

ImportError: Gtk* backend requires pygtk to be installed.

Then I tried to install pygtk:

$ pip
install pygtk

Downloading/unpacking pygtk

Running setup.py egg_info for package pygtk

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<string>", line 14, in <module>

  File

“/Users/michaelanderson/root/mikeWork/2010June/temp/build/pygtk/setup.py”,
line 22, in 

    from dsextras import get_m4_define, getoutput, have_pkgconfig, \

ImportError: No module named dsextras

Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:

Traceback (most recent call last):

File “”, line 14, in

File
“/Users/michaelanderson/root/mikeWork/2010June/temp/build/pygtk/setup.py”,
line 22, in 

from dsextras import get_m4_define, getoutput, have_pkgconfig, \

ImportError: No module named dsextras

Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1

Storing complete log in /Users/michaelanderson/.pip/pip.log

Ok, then I tried to install dsextras:

$ pip
install dsextras

Downloading/unpacking dsextras

Could not find any downloads that satisfy the requirement dsextras

No distributions at all found for dsextras

Storing complete log in /Users/michaelanderson/.pip/pip.log

What is this obscure package (dsextras) and is it really necessary to
run the shared axes demo?

Mike

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3

Hi,

Went looking on examples page and found there was a file name demo_image.py
http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/axes_grid/demo_image.html

However for whatever reason the source code was not downloadable (404
error), so I copied it off the html page.

I'm not sure why the matplotlib examples page would contain weird
dependencies like that, rather than just having simpler examples.

As for 'pip', it is a replacement for 'easy_install', both of which
find and install python packages. pip is meant to improve on
easy_install, with new features and more stability.

And I think you figured out my exact problem:

I'd be questioning your configuration of matplotlib, there should be a rc
file somewhere, maybe you (or your distro) have set the backend to gtk by
default?

Yep, unfortunately in ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc
this line was set to
backend : GTKAgg

So I fixed that. The other solution I found is to have at the top of
the plotting script the matplotlib.use() statement so that it uses
something else for a backend:

import matplotlib # Do this before importing pylab or pyplot
#matplotlib.use('Agg') # Anti-Grain Geometry (raster images)
matplotlib.use('PDF')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Thanks!
Mike