Installing matplotlib on MacOS X 10.6.4

dear Matplotlib users,

I can't manage to install matplotlib correctly on MacOS X 10.6.4.

when I launch the DMG installer matplotlib-1.0.0-python.org-py2.6-macosx10.4.mpkg
I get an error message, that my volume does not contain "System Python 2.6".
I'm running a standard MacOS X 10.6.4 with python 2.6.1 running from /usr/bin
And I do have Python 2.6 installed in
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6
Why does the installer doesn't sees it?

The reason I wanted to install matplotlib directly from DMG is that when I built it from source and then tried to use it, I got the error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./herbscmd.py", line 163, in <module>
sys.exit(main(sys.argv))
File "./herbscmd.py", line 156, in main
from matplotlib.pylab import show,draw
File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pylab.py", line 216, in <module>
from matplotlib import mpl # pulls in most modules
File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl.py", line 2, in <module>
from matplotlib import axis
File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/axis.py", line 10, in <module>
import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
File "/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 52, in <module>
from matplotlib import ft2font
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so, 2): Symbol not found: _FT_Attach_File
Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so
Expected in: flat namespace
in /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so

I noticed that many people had that same error (just google on _FT_Attach_File, you will see) but I couldn't find a solution anywhere. This is why I turned to DMG installation, but it doesn't seem to work either. Could anyone help?

Thanks in advance!

Yannis Haralambous.vcf (509 Bytes)

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Yannis Haralambous
Directeur d'études
Institut Télécom, Télécom Bretagne
Département Informatique
UMR CNRS 3192 Lab-STICC
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CS 83818, 29238 Brest Cedex 3, France
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Fax: +33 2 29 00 12 82
Email: yannis.haralambous@...3270...
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2010/9/10 Yannis Haralambous <yannis.haralambous@...3270...>:

when I launch the DMG installer matplotlib-1.0.0-python.org-py2.6-macosx10.4.mpkg
I get an error message, that my volume does not contain "System Python 2.6".
I'm running a standard MacOS X 10.6.4 with python 2.6.1 running from /usr/bin
And I do have Python 2.6 installed in
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6
Why does the installer doesn't sees it?

Several possible reasons:
1) You installed Python from source. In this case, since the mpl
installer checks using the Apple package system (yes, there is
actually a package system on Mac!), and installing from source of
course does not register with this, the installer wouldn't be able to
find the "Python" package.
2) There is a mistake in the matplotlib installer. This happened
before already.
3) You're not running Python from the python.org installer, but rather
Python from Apple.
4) I noticed that you're using the macosx10.4 installer, but you said
you're on 10.6? Libraries on 10.6 are built with gcc-4.2, and the
libs from the 10.4 bundle are built certainly with gcc-4.0. In this
case it cannot load the gcc-4.2 built libraries.

You can try to search the /matplotlib/ threads for this, we had
several threads on this before. I remember no issue atm on this list
about this not solved. But I may overestimate. You can also keep
asking.

Btw, where does your freetype2 come from? How did your build find it
(i.e., do you have pkg-config or not)?

Friedrich