matplotlib compiled fine, but plot doesn't pop up in interactive mode

Community matplotlib-users
1

Dear all,
I tried to search through the mailinglist archive first, but couldn’t ( http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=matplotlib-users). Is the mailinglist only for browsing by date?

I did a clean install of matplotlib (following the installation webpage) on Linux machine (x86_64 GNU/Linux), from source file matplotlib-1.1.0.tar.

the building log is as follow, you could see that I did change the basedir list in setupext.py. I didn’t change the matplotlibrc file. (I installed ActiveTcl and ActivePython trying to solve the problem, but the installation seems unchanged.)

tabasco:~/software/matplotlib-1.1.0> python setup.py build
basedirlist is: [’/usr/local’, ‘/usr’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/libpng-1.5.9’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/ActiveTcl’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/ActivePython’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/freetype-2.4.9’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/zlib-1.2.6’]

···

============================================================================
BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
matplotlib: 1.1.0
python: 2.7.2 (default, Mar 3 2012, 11:39:51) [GCC 4.1.2
20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)]
platform: linux2

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
numpy: 1.6.1
freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
libpng: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
Tkinter: no
* TKAgg requires Tkinter
Gtk+: no
* Building for Gtk+ requires pygtk; you must be able
* to “import gtk” in your build/install environment
Mac OS X native: no
Qt: no
Qt4: no
Cairo: no

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
datetime: present, version unknown
dateutil: 1.5
pytz: 2011c

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
dvipng: no
ghostscript: /bin/sh: gs: command not found
latex: no

[Edit setup.cfg to suppress the above messages]

…

After compilation, I can generate plots using script as blow:

cat test.py
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
plt.plot([1,2],[2,3])
plt.savefig(“test.png”)
plt.savefig(“test.eps”)
plt.savefig(“test.pdf”)

But the problem I have now is that: I get no pop-up window when I type pylab.show() in interactive mode. And below is the output of simple_plot:

cat simple_plot.py
from pylab import *
plot([1,2,3])
show()

python simple_plot.py --verbose-helpful
$HOME=/mnt/raidc/mshang
CONFIGDIR=/mnt/raidc/mshang/.matplotlib
matplotlib data path /mnt/raidc/mshang/software/Python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data
loaded rc file /mnt/raidc/mshang/software/Python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc
matplotlib version 1.1.0
verbose.level helpful
interactive is False
platform is linux2
Using fontManager instance from /mnt/raidc/mshang/.matplotlib/fontList.cache
backend agg version v2.2

Does anyone have any idea what’s going wrong here? I can run gnuplot and get pop-up windows fine, but I guess matplotlib doesn’t use Xming…

Thank you all for reading this post!!

–
Miranda

2

The build can’t find the build dependencies. At the very least, install the tkinter-devel packages. These dependencies are needed to make mpl interactive, but are not required for a successful build. The instructions on the page for how to install from source explains how to determine all your build requirements from the command-line.

I hope that helps!
Ben Root

···

On Thursday, March 15, 2012, Yi Shang <mirandaisbest@…287…> wrote:

Dear all,
I tried to search through the mailinglist archive first, but couldn’t ( http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=matplotlib-users). Is the mailinglist only for browsing by date?

I did a clean install of matplotlib (following the installation webpage) on Linux machine (x86_64 GNU/Linux), from source file matplotlib-1.1.0.tar.

the building log is as follow, you could see that I did change the basedir list in setupext.py. I didn’t change the matplotlibrc file. (I installed ActiveTcl and ActivePython trying to solve the problem, but the installation seems unchanged.)

tabasco:~/software/matplotlib-1.1.0> python setup.py build
basedirlist is: [’/usr/local’, ‘/usr’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/libpng-1.5.9’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/ActiveTcl’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/ActivePython’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/freetype-2.4.9’, ‘/mnt/raidc/mshang/software/zlib-1.2.6’]

============================================================================
BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
matplotlib: 1.1.0
python: 2.7.2 (default, Mar 3 2012, 11:39:51) [GCC 4.1.2

                    20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)]
          platform: linux2

REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
numpy: 1.6.1
freetype2: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)

OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
libpng: found, but unknown version (no pkg-config)
Tkinter: no
* TKAgg requires Tkinter
Gtk+: no

                    * Building for Gtk+ requires pygtk; you must be able
                    * to "import gtk" in your build/install environment
   Mac OS X native: no
                Qt: no

               Qt4: no
             Cairo: no

OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
datetime: present, version unknown
dateutil: 1.5
pytz: 2011c

OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
dvipng: no
ghostscript: /bin/sh: gs: command not found
latex: no

[Edit setup.cfg to suppress the above messages]

============================================================================
…

After compilation, I can generate plots using script as blow:

cat test.py
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt

plt.plot([1,2],[2,3])
plt.savefig(“test.png”)
plt.savefig(“test.eps”)
plt.savefig(“test.pdf”)

But the problem I have now is that: I get no pop-up window when I type pylab.show() in interactive mode. And below is the output of simple_plot:

cat simple_plot.py
from pylab import *
plot([1,2,3])
show()

python simple_plot.py --verbose-helpful
$HOME=/mnt/raidc/mshang
CONFIGDIR=/mnt/raidc/mshang/.matplotlib

matplotlib data path /mnt/raidc/mshang/software/Python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data
loaded rc file /mnt/raidc/mshang/software/Python-2.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc

matplotlib version 1.1.0
verbose.level helpful
interactive is False
platform is linux2
Using fontManager instance from /mnt/raidc/mshang/.matplotlib/fontList.cache
backend agg version v2.2

Does anyone have any idea what’s going wrong here? I can run gnuplot and get pop-up windows fine, but I guess matplotlib doesn’t use Xming…

Thank you all for reading this post!!

–
Miranda