Installing matplotlib on Tiger

I attempted to install Pylab on my own computer and so far have had no
success. I followed these steps:
1) downloaded Python 2.6 for OS 10.4
2) downloaded the corresponding numpy and installed it (successfully)
3) downloaded the corresponding matplotlib
(matplotlib-1.0.0-python.org-py2.6-macosx10.4.dmg) and installed it [One
possible cause for the error is that, though the package includes
"macosx10.4", the actual installing package (which one can see if one tries
a customized install) says "macosx10.5".]
4) Attempted to run Python and import Pylab. I got an error related to
_tkinter not being found (even though it is installed). I looked all over
the forums for this error, and it seems that the only solution is to edit
the setup.py file and recompile matplotlib. However, because I installed
from a binary, I cannot do this. So I attempted to install from source:
5) I downloaded matplotlib-1.0.0.tar.gz and untarred it. Then I ran:
'make' (which supposedly takes care of finding out where all the Mac stuff
is located) and
'python setup.py build', the default command for building Python modules.
Now I get a ton of errors, the first one being:
freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
* WARNING: Could not find 'freetype2' headers in any
* of '.', './freetype2'.
As a third try, I attempted to install using easy_install, a tool for
installing Python modules:
6) I ran 'easy_install matplotlib'. This runs very quickly (suspicious)
7) The same error as in step 4 comes up when trying to import pylab
I went into
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/
and deleted all matplotlib-related stuff, thinking that maybe easy_install
didn't do anything because matplotlib was already installed
9) Repeated step 6, and saw the same errors that came up when trying to
install from source

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Pablo

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Hi,

A.S.: Ralf, wasn't the reason why we shifted to Vincent's build
machine running 10.5, because numpy didn't run on 10.4 when built on
10.6?

2010/11/2 pablomos <pablo@...879...>:

I attempted to install Pylab on my own computer and so far have had no
success. I followed these steps:
1) downloaded Python 2.6 for OS 10.4
2) downloaded the corresponding numpy and installed it (successfully)

3) downloaded the corresponding matplotlib
(matplotlib-1.0.0-python.org-py2.6-macosx10.4.dmg) and installed it [One
possible cause for the error is that, though the package includes
"macosx10.4", the actual installing package (which one can see if one tries
a customized install) says "macosx10.5".]

This is due to a bug in bdist_mpkg probably, used to generate those
binaries on a 10.5 system, although the MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET was
10.4 or 10.3 (as I strongly believe), the installer outputs somehow
"-10.5" when run. I don't know details.

Of course it is contradictory to my above assumtion that the build was
carried out on a 10.6 ...

4) Attempted to run Python and import Pylab. I got an error related to
_tkinter not being found (even though it is installed). I looked all over
the forums for this error, and it seems that the only solution is to edit
the setup.py file and recompile matplotlib. However, because I installed
from a binary, I cannot do this. So I attempted to install from source:

Can you give more details on the _tkinter error, is it matplotlib
specific, or does it mean the Python _tkinter if such one exists at
all? It's kinda strange.

5) I downloaded matplotlib-1.0.0.tar.gz and untarred it. Then I ran:
'make' (which supposedly takes care of finding out where all the Mac stuff
is located) and

For Python packages, ``make`` is *usually* not used. Indeed,
matplotlib is an exception here (see below).

'python setup.py build', the default command for building Python modules.
Now I get a ton of errors, the first one being:
freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
* WARNING: Could not find 'freetype2' headers in any
* of '.', './freetype2'.

You got it. If you have freetype2 and libpng installed on your
system, just have a look at setupext.py, and add the installation root
path (most likely '/usr/local') to the 'darwin' section. It is left
out because of problems on > 10.4, but on your 10.4 system it should
work. It's the most easy solution if.

If you don't have freetype2 installed / libpng, and you really want to
compile from source (if we cannot sort out the _tkinter thingy), then
there are two ways: Hard-core installation by compiling them yourself,
or assisted by make.osx. I personally cannot give you advice with the
more easy make.osx way, but be aware of that also this compiles and
installs the libs. For the hard-core way you might find my docs on
that useful (it's intended for 10.6, so feedback from 10.4 users is
welcome): http://vincentdavis.info/Shared/Docs/matplotlib-installation/build/html/.
Vincent is hosting that site, gratefully acknowledged.

As a third try, I attempted to install using easy_install, a tool for
installing Python modules:
6) I ran 'easy_install matplotlib'. This runs very quickly (suspicious)
7) The same error as in step 4 comes up when trying to import pylab
I went into
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/
and deleted all matplotlib-related stuff, thinking that maybe easy_install
didn't do anything because matplotlib was already installed

9) Repeated step 6, and saw the same errors that came up when trying to
install from source

You mean easy_install wanted to install from source??

Btw, the binaries *should* work. It looks like kind of failure of the
binaries. Might be that I'm missing something, though.

Hope you find this useful,
Friedrich

[Don't forget to "reply to all" and not only me.]

Hi,

A.S.: Ralf, wasn't the reason why we shifted to Vincent's build
machine running 10.5, because numpy didn't run on 10.4 when built on
10.6?

No, the numpy installers have never had a problem on 10.4 AFAIK. The
issue was that installers built on 10.6 would (on some but not all
machines) fail on 10.5.

2010/11/2 pablomos <pablo@...879...>:

I attempted to install Pylab on my own computer and so far have had no
success. I followed these steps:
1) downloaded Python 2.6 for OS 10.4
2) downloaded the corresponding numpy and installed it (successfully)

3) downloaded the corresponding matplotlib
(matplotlib-1.0.0-python.org-py2.6-macosx10.4.dmg) and installed it [One
possible cause for the error is that, though the package includes
"macosx10.4", the actual installing package (which one can see if one tries
a customized install) says "macosx10.5".]

This is due to a bug in bdist_mpkg probably, used to generate those
binaries on a 10.5 system, although the MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET was
10.4 or 10.3 (as I strongly believe), the installer outputs somehow
"-10.5" when run. I don't know details.

This is just a file name, not necessarily the cause of any error
during installation.

Cheers,
Ralf

···

On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 5:10 AM, Friedrich Romstedt <friedrichromstedt@...287...> wrote: