Python Module Installation Problems

Question

I'm having a ton of trouble installing modules. At first I thought I had messed with my python installation on mac os x but I installed a virtual machine and ubuntu 11.04 and have similar troubles. Why are both os x and ubuntu failing with the same error?

For example I can't install tkinter with it failing:

Installing collected packages: tkinter-pypy
  Running setup.py install for tkinter-pypy
    building '_tkinter' extension
    gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -DWITH_APPINIT -I/usr/include/tcl -I/usr/include/tk -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c src/_tkinter.c -o build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src/_tkinter.o
    src/_tkinter.c:74:17: fatal error: tcl.h: No such file or directory
    compilation terminated.
    error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
    Complete output from command /usr/bin/python -c "import setuptools;__file__='/home/pfm/build/tkinter-pypy/setup.py';execfile(__file__)" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-sMB5Wi-record/install-record.txt:
    running install

running build

running build_ext

building '_tkinter' extension

gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -DWITH_APPINIT -I/usr/include/tcl -I/usr/include/tk -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c src/_tkinter.c -o build/temp.linux-i686-2.7/src/_tkinter.o

src/_tkinter.c:74:17: fatal error: tcl.h: No such file or directory

compilation terminated.

error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

----------------------------------------
Command /usr/bin/python -c "import setuptools;__file__='/home/pfm/build/tkinter-pypy/setup.py';execfile(__file__)" install --single-version-externally-managed --record /tmp/pip-sMB5Wi-record/install-record.txt failed with error code 1
Storing complete log in /home/pfm/.pip/pip.log

Answer 1

I encountered exactly the same problem when trying to install tkinter-pypy on Ubuntu 11.04. The error message shows that it's looking for tcl.h file in /usr/include/tcl, but it's not there. I have to install the dev version of the tcl library (I installed tcl8.4-dev).

sudo apt-get install tcl8.4-dev

This installs the header files to /usr/include/tcl8.4. I then created a symlink /usr/include/tcl pointing to that. I also installed the dev version of the tk library (eg tk8.4-dev) which installed the tk.h header (needed too by tkinter-pypy) in the /usr/include/tcl directory.

After these steps, tkinter-pypy can be installed successfully.

Answer 2

Not sure about the error, but Tkinter should be available with your Python install. Have you tried to import Tkinter . On a related note I'd definitely recommend using setuptools (aka. easy_install ) or one of the other similar installation tools.

EDIT

If Tkinter is still not available, then, on Linux, try locate lib-tk and adding it to your python path

import sys; sys.path.append(PATH_TO_TK)

Then check out the Wiki to get the setup to stick: http://wiki.python.org/moin/TkInter

Another EDIT

A simple work around might be to install IDLE, which depends on Tkinter (noted by the OP).