[yt-users] Installation script issue with pygtk

Chris Malone chris.m.malone at gmail.com
Mon Dec 6 15:10:32 PST 2010 

@Andrew: I do, in fact, have tcl/tk installed on my machine - version 8.5.2
in /usr/lib64 - so I'm not entirely sure why the version of matplotlib in
the yt distribution couldn't find it.  I have used Tkinter with my current
Python installation.  Maybe it would be better to try to build by hand and
point to all the individual pieces.

@Matt: Thanks for the history behind the toolkit choices.  The HTML GUI
sounds interesting and I look forward to seeing how it turns out.

Chris

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 5:29 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Sorry to chime in after all the activity is dead, but I believe Andrew
> is completely correct -- this is just another symptom of how providing
> cross-platform, cross-toolkit GUIs is a difficult (even broken)
> process, and Agg is the only really reliable plotting solution.  The
> availability of GTK, Qt, Tk and so forth, let alone the wrappers on
> top of those underlying toolkits, is not guaranteed, and installing
> these platforms along with their long list of dependencies is not an
> easy task for an isolated installation script.  (This is why tools
> like VisIt and ParaView typically spend so much time on packaging!)
>
> Once upon a time in the west we tried supplying wxPython with yt,
> which would enable the usage of the wxAgg backend for Matplotlib, but
> it became too burdensome to maintain, and it never worked properly.
> Having now written several GUIs for yt, none of which really worked in
> the long run, I personally believe that there's only really one way
> forward with the current state of the technology.  This is going to be
> a combination of a webserver tunneled over ssh and local display (in a
> web browser) of a standard Python prompt with the ability to create
> small widgets for data exploration.  Maintaining a large GUI that
> lives on top of the scripting interface is a difficult problem, and I
> think it's unreasonable to expect it to be both maintainable and
> complete.
>
> I've built a couple prototypes of a purely HTML GUI, but I don't
> expect to be able to roll these into the main distribution until
> sometime in the early part of next year.  The idea would be that you
> open an ssh tunnel to a remote machine, you hit your local port and
> your web browser talks to yt.  Within this you'd be able to access the
> scripting interface and spawn individual widgets for things like image
> panning, volume rendering, editing transfer functions and so on, and
> then view the results directly in the browser without having to
> forward toolkit-displayed graphics through an X11 session.  This seems
> to me to be the only mechanism we can guarantee a user interface
> experience that doesn't rely on remote systems having a set of
> dependencies that are frankly quite uncommon at most supercomputer
> deployments.  In this model, the UI would be very small, require no
> compile-time dependencies, and could be *much* more easily maintained.
>
> Anyway, sorry about the rant, and I'm very sorry that the standard iyt
> interactive plotting did not work -- but your concerns aren't falling
> on deaf ears, and hopefully in the medium-future we can roll something
> out that will work for interactive, exploratory analysis without
> adding any installation complexity.
>
> If anybody wants to help out with this, beta test, or has experience
> with JavaScript/HTML/ExtJS/AJAX, I'd be *really* eager to chat with
> you.  I've got a public hg repo with my initial attempts in it which
> I'm also happy to share.  Email me off-list and I'll send the URL and
> some info on how to start out.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Matt
>
> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Andrew Myers <atmyers at berkeley.edu> wrote:
> > Hi Chris,
> >
> > I've seen this before when trying to build yt on my machine. If the
> > matplotlib installer can't find tcl/tk on your machine, it won't be able
> to
> > build Tkinter. You'll need to install tcl/tk and re-run the yt install
> > script.
> >
> > You should be able to use yt with the 'Agg' backend even if you don't do
> > this. You won't be able to view figures interactively, but you will be
> able
> > to save .png files to look at later. This is probably the default
> backend,
> > which is why moving the matplotlibrc file allowed you to start iyt.
> >
> > Andrew Myers
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Chris Malone <chris.m.malone at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >>
> >> A followup:
> >>
> >> I tried the install script on a different machine and it installed fine.
> >> I then went back to my original machine and mv'ed the
> >> ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc file out of the way and the ipython session
> >> started properly with iyt.
> >>
> >> So something in my matplibrc file is causing the crash, but the only
> >> warning I received was that the numerix param was obsolete.  I tried
> just
> >> commenting out that particular line in the matplotlibrc file but I still
> >> recieve the same errors as before.  Any ideas what else in the
> matplotlibrc
> >> file could be causing the crash?
> >>
> >> Chris
> >>
> >> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:46 PM, Chris Malone <chris.m.malone at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hi Jeff,
> >>>
> >>> Thanks for the quick response.  Changing this in my
> >>> ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc file results in:
> >>> $ iyt
> >>>
> >>>
> /home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/rcsetup.py:117:
> >>> UserWarning: rcParams key "numerix" is obsolete and has no effect;
> >>>  please delete it from your matplotlibrc file
> >>>   warnings.warn('rcParams key "numerix" is obsolete and has no
> effect;\n'
> >>> Traceback (most recent call last):
> >>>   File "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/bin/iyt", line 7, in
> <module>
> >>>     execfile(__file__)
> >>>   File "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/src/yt-hg/scripts/iyt", line
> >>> 32, in <module>
> >>>     ip_shell = IPython.Shell.IPShellMatplotlib(user_ns=namespace)
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>> line 1106, in __init__
> >>>     shell_class=MatplotlibShell)
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>> line 73, in __init__
> >>>     debug=debug,shell_class=shell_class)
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/ipmaker.py",
> >>> line 100, in make_IPython
> >>>     embedded=embedded,**kw)
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>> line 627, in __init__
> >>>     user_ns,user_global_ns,b2 =
> >>> self._matplotlib_config(name,user_ns,user_global_ns)
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>> line 556, in _matplotlib_config
> >>>     import matplotlib.pylab as pylab
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pylab.py",
> >>> line 259, in <module>
> >>>     from matplotlib.pyplot import *
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py",
> >>> line 95, in <module>
> >>>     new_figure_manager, draw_if_interactive, show = pylab_setup()
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/__init__.py",
> >>> line 25, in pylab_setup
> >>>     globals(),locals(),[backend_name])
> >>>   File
> >>>
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py",
> >>> line 8, in <module>
> >>>     import Tkinter as Tk, FileDialog
> >>>   File
> >>> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/lib-tk/Tkinter.py",
> line
> >>> 39, in <module>
> >>>     import _tkinter # If this fails your Python may not be configured
> for
> >>> Tk
> >>> ImportError: No module named _tkinter
> >>>
> >>> The install script that I attached before listed "no" for the Tkinter,
> >>> wxPython and Gtk+ OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES when trying to build
> >>> matplotlib.
> >>>
> >>> Chris
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 3:17 PM, j s oishi <jsoishi at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi Chris,
> >>>>
> >>>> Could you try switching the backend in your .matplotlibrc file to
> >>>> TkAgg? yt may not install all the GUI backends matplotlib can support,
> >>>> but it should work with TkAgg straight out of the box.
> >>>>
> >>>> thanks,
> >>>>
> >>>> jeff
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 11:52 AM, Chris Malone <
> chris.m.malone at gmail.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>> > Hi,
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Im running on a Fedora 9, 64-bit local desktop:
> >>>> >
> >>>> > $ uname -r 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.x86_64
> >>>> >
> >>>> > I used the install script for both the current stable release as
> well
> >>>> > as the
> >>>> > development release.  Both scripts completed without any errors.  I
> >>>> > wanted
> >>>> > to try the Quick Start instructions to play with the iyt interface.
> >>>> > Below
> >>>> > is what happens for both cases (after prepending the appropriate
> >>>> > environment
> >>>> > variables):
> >>>> >
> >>>> > $ iyt
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> /home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/rcsetup.py:117:
> >>>> > UserWarning: rcParams key "numerix" is obsolete and has no effect;
> >>>> >  please delete it from your matplotlibrc file
> >>>> >   warnings.warn('rcParams key "numerix" is obsolete and has no
> >>>> > effect;\n'
> >>>> > Traceback (most recent call last):
> >>>> >   File "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/bin/iyt", line 7, in
> >>>> > <module>
> >>>> >     execfile(__file__)
> >>>> >   File "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/src/yt-hg/scripts/iyt",
> >>>> > line 30,
> >>>> > in <module>
> >>>> >     ip_shell = ipbackends[bend](user_ns=namespace)
> >>>> >   File
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>>> > line 1116, in __init__
> >>>> >     shell_class=MatplotlibMTShell)
> >>>> >   File
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> "/home/cmalone/install/yt/yt-x86_64/lib/python2.6/site-packages/IPython/Shell.py",
> >>>> > line 775, in __init__
> >>>> >     import gtk
> >>>> > ImportError: No module named gtk
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > It therefore appears (and see example install log below) that pygtk
> >>>> > was not
> >>>> > installed or detected.  Is this working as intended, such that the
> >>>> > install
> >>>> > script doesn't include the GUI backend information?  Or is is
> >>>> > something on
> >>>> > my end that is not working properly?  The install script mentions if
> >>>> > you
> >>>> > have problems with wxPython you should set INST_WXPYTHON=0, but I
> >>>> > don't see
> >>>> > anything specific about Gtk and I didn't have any wxPython issues
> >>>> > other than
> >>>> > the installer not finding it when trying to install matplotlib
> (again
> >>>> > see
> >>>> > install log).
> >>>> >
> >>>> > In other words, it appears that the install script isn't completely
> >>>> > creating
> >>>> > a "fully isolated Python installation with the dependencies you need
> >>>> > to run
> >>>> > yt," unless there are some options I need to pass to matplotlib via
> >>>> > the
> >>>> > MPL_SUPP_* flags?
> >>>> >
> >>>> > If it helps at all, I do have a Python 2.5.1 global installation,
> >>>> > which has
> >>>> > access to matplotlib, NumPy, wxPython, Tkinter, and Gtk.  Would it
> be
> >>>> > easier
> >>>> > to install by hand and just point to the appropriate locations of
> >>>> > these
> >>>> > libraries?  If so, which versions of HDF5, NumPy, Matplotlib and
> >>>> > wxPython
> >>>> > are required? (only versions of Python are specified at
> >>>> > http://yt.enzotools.org/doc/installation.html#installing-by-hand
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> > -------------- yt_install.log attached ----------------
> >>>> >
> >>>> > Chris
> >>>> >
> >>>> > _______________________________________________
> >>>> > yt-users mailing list
> >>>> > yt-users at lists.spacepope.org
> >>>> > http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-users-spacepope.org
> >>>> >
> >>>> >
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> yt-users mailing list
> >>>> yt-users at lists.spacepope.org
> >>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-users-spacepope.org
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> yt-users mailing list
> >> yt-users at lists.spacepope.org
> >> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-users-spacepope.org
> >>
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > yt-users mailing list
> > yt-users at lists.spacepope.org
> > http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-users-spacepope.org
> >
> >
> _______________________________________________
> yt-users mailing list
> yt-users at lists.spacepope.org
> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-users-spacepope.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.spacepope.org/pipermail/yt-users-spacepope.org/attachments/20101206/22bdd271/attachment.htm>

More information about the yt-users mailing list