matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 installation problem : "cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up."

Community matplotlib-users
1

Hi,
trying to install matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 (Suse 10.0), I get :

===> cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.

this is annoying and I cannot find much on the web to help me there. I have checked my libraries and soft (including the "devel") and think I have everything updated right.

It is probably a simple pb, so if anybody has a hint there;

thanks in advance.

Eric
P.S.: by the way, upgrading my Linux (Suse 10.0) and therefore getting python 2.4, I have now to reinstall everything from scratch (python modules) and this is a REAL pain (for example ATLAS which takes ages and so on). It means for me that I cannot work before having all back to normal (all modules working such as ppgplot, gnuplot-py, Numeric, numarray, Scipy, matplotlib, etc, etc). And I am not even sure this will compile with Python 2.4. Anybody knows a way out of this?

···

--

Observatoire de Lyon emsellem@...419...
9 av. Charles-Andre tel: +33 4 78 86 83 84
69561 Saint-Genis Laval Cedex fax: +33 4 78 86 83 86
France http://www-obs.univ-lyon1.fr/eric.emsellem

2

Eric Emsellem wrote:

Hi,
trying to install matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 (Suse 10.0), I get :

===> cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.

On SuSE this should be fixed by installing
tk-devel and tcl-devel

Christian

3

Hi Eric,

installation issues can be frustrating - most of us have been
through what you encounter at the momemt (at least once ;-).
Don't give up! Some ideas below (I will also send you my
full install notes off-list - see also:
http://www.scipy.org/mailinglists/mailman?fn=scipy-dev/2005-November/003949.html
)

Hi,
trying to install matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 (Suse 10.0), I get :

===> cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.

this is annoying and I cannot find much on the web to help me there. I
have checked my libraries and soft (including the "devel") and think I
have everything updated right.

It is probably a simple pb, so if anybody has a hint there;

In my notes for the installation under SUSE 10.0 I have:

In setupext.py change:

def find_tcltk():

      [...]

      #o.tk_inc="/usr/include/"
      o.tcl_inc="/usr/include/"

      if not os.path.exists(o.tcl_inc):
          print 'cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.'
          sys.exit()
  return o

Not sure if this will help you.

thanks in advance.

Eric
P.S.: by the way, upgrading my Linux (Suse 10.0) and therefore getting
python 2.4, I have now to reinstall everything from scratch (python
modules) and this is a REAL pain (for example ATLAS which takes ages and
so on).

ATLAS is surely the worst. Does any SUSE expert know,
whether there are ATLAS packages available?

For downloads of precompiled ATLAS see:
  http://www.scipy.org/download/atlasbinaries/linux/

It means for me that I cannot work before having all back to
normal (all modules working such as ppgplot, gnuplot-py, Numeric,
numarray, Scipy, matplotlib, etc, etc). And I am not even sure this will
compile with Python 2.4. Anybody knows a way out of this?

Compilation of all these (don't know about ppgplot) worked
fine for me on SUSE 10.0 (even with 64 Bit, with kind help from the
sciy mailing list) and does not take too long.

Another option is too choose debian (or ubuntu, ...) as distribution.
If you want to have up-to-date matplotlib, you can either compile
them yourself or try use use some of the pre-built ones
(eg. by John for ubuntu). Also for current scipy you will
have to install it yourself.
But ATLAS and basically anything else you might need is
avaible as .deb.

Good luck,

Arnd

···

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Eric Emsellem wrote:

4

I am running matplotlib and scipy on ubuntu and it really was pretty
straight forward to install.

But you may be tied to SUSE for other reasons or the idea of a
complete reinstall may be completely unacceptable.

ATLAS and BLAS and LAPACK are all available as precompiled packages on ubuntu.

Ryan

···

On 11/23/05, Arnd Baecker <arnd.baecker@...273...> wrote:

Hi Eric,

installation issues can be frustrating - most of us have been
through what you encounter at the momemt (at least once ;-).
Don't give up! Some ideas below (I will also send you my
full install notes off-list - see also:
http://www.scipy.org/mailinglists/mailman?fn=scipy-dev/2005-November/003949.html
)

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005, Eric Emsellem wrote:

> Hi,
> trying to install matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 (Suse 10.0), I get :
>
> ===> cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.
>
> this is annoying and I cannot find much on the web to help me there. I
> have checked my libraries and soft (including the "devel") and think I
> have everything updated right.
>
> It is probably a simple pb, so if anybody has a hint there;

In my notes for the installation under SUSE 10.0 I have:

In setupext.py change:

def find_tcltk():

      [...]

      #o.tk_inc="/usr/include/"
      o.tcl_inc="/usr/include/"

      if not os.path.exists(o.tcl_inc):
          print 'cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.'
          sys.exit()
  return o

Not sure if this will help you.

> thanks in advance.
>
> Eric
> P.S.: by the way, upgrading my Linux (Suse 10.0) and therefore getting
> python 2.4, I have now to reinstall everything from scratch (python
> modules) and this is a REAL pain (for example ATLAS which takes ages and
> so on).

ATLAS is surely the worst. Does any SUSE expert know,
whether there are ATLAS packages available?

For downloads of precompiled ATLAS see:
  http://www.scipy.org/download/atlasbinaries/linux/

> It means for me that I cannot work before having all back to
> normal (all modules working such as ppgplot, gnuplot-py, Numeric,
> numarray, Scipy, matplotlib, etc, etc). And I am not even sure this will
> compile with Python 2.4. Anybody knows a way out of this?

Compilation of all these (don't know about ppgplot) worked
fine for me on SUSE 10.0 (even with 64 Bit, with kind help from the
sciy mailing list) and does not take too long.

Another option is too choose debian (or ubuntu, ...) as distribution.
If you want to have up-to-date matplotlib, you can either compile
them yourself or try use use some of the pre-built ones
(eg. by John for ubuntu). Also for current scipy you will
have to install it yourself.
But ATLAS and basically anything else you might need is
avaible as .deb.

Good luck,

Arnd

-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today
Register for a JBoss Training Course. Free Certification Exam
for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005. For more info visit:
http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7628&alloc_id=16845&op=click
_______________________________________________
Matplotlib-users mailing list
Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
matplotlib-users List Signup and Options

5

Arnd Baecker wrote:

Another option is too choose debian (or ubuntu, ...) as distribution.

Gentoo is quite friendly to python, atlas, etc as well, once you've got a basic system installed. I've also had luck with Fedora Core 4, though I was very surprised NOT to find good atlas rpms.

Eric Emsellem wrote:

P.S.: by the way, upgrading my Linux (Suse 10.0) and therefore getting python 2.4, I have now to reinstall everything from scratch (python modules) and this is a REAL pain

Yes, it sure is. Did the upgrade remove your python2.3 installation? If not, you should be able to just use "python2.3" at the command line and in your #! lines, and keep using the old install while you work on getting everything you need into 2.4.

I always put a versioned python in my #! lines:

#!/usr/bin/env python2.3

So that I can install a new python, and still have any scripts I've got working just keep working.

If the Suse upgrade did remove python2.3 -- shame on Suse.

-Chris

···

--
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
                                         
NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT (206) 526-6959 voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception

Chris.Barker@...259...

6

Arnd Baecker wrote:
> Another option is too choose debian (or ubuntu, ...) as distribution.

Gentoo is quite friendly to python, atlas, etc as well, once you've got
a basic system installed. I've also had luck with Fedora Core 4, though
I was very surprised NOT to find good atlas rpms.

  What problems did you had with the version present in Extras?
  I am just curious, and the feedback is important to improve it. Note that I am
not the packager but I am clearly interested in good implementation of atlas for
fedora.

···

On 23/11/05, Chris Barker <Chris.Barker@...259...> wrote:

--
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT (206) 526-6959 voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception

Chris.Barker@...259...

--
José Matos

7

Jos� Matos wrote:

  What problems did you had with the version present in Extras?

It turns out that my problem is that those packages didn't exist when I installed core 4, which was pretty soon after it was released.

However, now that I've got you on line, atlas does not provide a complete lapack implementation. What's the easiest way to get a complete implementation, with as much optimized as possible?

Also, I note that there are versions for SSE, SSE2, and 3dnow. do you know a good source for figuring out which of these a given processor has, and what if you have both 3dnow and SSE2?

-Chris

···

--
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer
                                         
NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT (206) 526-6959 voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception

Chris.Barker@...259...

8

Eric Emsellem wrote:

Hi,
trying to install matplotlib 0.85 on python 2.4 (Suse 10.0), I get :

===> cannot find tcl/tk headers. giving up.

this is annoying and I cannot find much on the web to help me there. I
have checked my libraries and soft (including the "devel") and think I
have everything updated right.

It is probably a simple pb, so if anybody has a hint there;

thanks in advance.

Eric
P.S.: by the way, upgrading my Linux (Suse 10.0) and therefore getting
python 2.4, I have now to reinstall everything from scratch (python
modules) and this is a REAL pain (for example ATLAS which takes ages and
so on). It means for me that I cannot work before having all back to
normal (all modules working such as ppgplot, gnuplot-py, Numeric,
numarray, Scipy, matplotlib, etc, etc). And I am not even sure this will
compile with Python 2.4. Anybody knows a way out of this?

I was wrong about the tk/tcl issues. It is not solved by installing the devel
rpms. So you could do what Arndt proposed or live without the tk backend by
setting BUILD_TKAGG=0.
Anyway I just wanted to tell that building scipy from svn and matplotlib 0.85
was really straightforward on SuSE 10.0 with gcc4 and python2.4. Concerning the
ATLAS libs: I built them once some years ago and since that time I used them on
every freshly installed system without problems as long as the architecture was
the same (P4 32 bit). Probably the optimization suffers a bit by doing so but I
don't care that much for speed. If you like I can send you the ATLAS binaries.

Regards, Christian

9

José Matos wrote:
> What problems did you had with the version present in Extras?

It turns out that my problem is that those packages didn't exist when I
installed core 4, which was pretty soon after it was released.

  That is fair. :slight_smile:

However, now that I've got you on line, atlas does not provide a
complete lapack implementation. What's the easiest way to get a complete
implementation, with as much optimized as possible?

  Quentin Spencer (the packager) send several messages explaining the details.
One place where I have found it was here, there was also another
message to fedora extras mailing list.
http://www.octave.org/mailing-lists/help-octave/2005/3803

  There he explains some of reasoning in package and also how to build
a customized
local package. Notice that other packages, i.e. blas and lapack, are
prepared to
work with a custom package.

Also, I note that there are versions for SSE, SSE2, and 3dnow. do you
know a good source for figuring out which of these a given processor
has, and what if you have both 3dnow and SSE2?

  That is explained above. For now the package follows the same scheme
as debian.
One goal is that later the package chooses on real time the best
version to use, using ld
to find the right version depending on the arch used.

···

On 23/11/05, Chris Barker <Chris.Barker@...259...> wrote:

-Chris

--
Christopher Barker, Ph.D.
Oceanographer

NOAA/OR&R/HAZMAT (206) 526-6959 voice
7600 Sand Point Way NE (206) 526-6329 fax
Seattle, WA 98115 (206) 526-6317 main reception

Chris.Barker@...259...

--
José Matos