Here are my notes about setting up python programming environment on my ASRock mini running Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit), covering the latest and greatest Python 3.2, plus some third party libraries that I need for my work.

Fifth note in this series will cover:

• how to install python 3.2.0 (32-bit) from source in alternate location
• how to install cx_Oracle 5.0.4 from source
• how to install PyYAML 3.09 from source
• how to install lxml 2.3 from source
• how to install PyQt 4.8.3 from source

PYTHON 3.2
Soon after my first failed attempt to compile python 3.2 on my Ubuntu 10.04 workstation, I realized that tk-dev package was missing on my system, causing IDLE to report the error:
IDLE can’t import Tkinter. Your Python may not be configured for Tk.

$ sudo apt-get install tk-dev


Then I proceeded with the python build:

$ mkdir python
$ cd python
$ mkdir python32
$ cd python32
$ wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.2/Python-3.2.tgz
$ tar xvzf Python-3.2.tgz
$ cd Python-3.2
$ ./configure --prefix=/opt/python3.2
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ sudo ln -s /opt/python3.2/bin/python3.2 /usr/bin/python32
$ sudo ln -s /opt/python3.2/bin/idle3.2 /usr/bin/idle-python3.2


Now you can create launcher on your desktop that’ll point to /usr/bin/idle-python3.2.

THIRD PARTY LIBRARIES

cx_Oracle 5.0.4

Note! I’m using “full” Oracle 11g R2 client, not an instant client! For instant client refer to the BUILD document that ships with cx_Oracle library.


-- Download tar with the source from http://cx-oracle.sourceforge.net/
-- to ~/python/cx_Oracle, then proceed:
$ export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/ora11
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/oracle/ora11/lib
$ cd ~/python/cx_Oracle
$ tar xvzf cx_Oracle-5.0.4.tar.gz
$ cd cx_Oracle-5.0.4
$ python32 setup.py build
$ sudo su - root
# export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/ora11
# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/oracle/ora11/lib
# cd /home/alesk/python/cx_Oracle/cx_Oracle-5.0.4
# python32 setup.py install
# exit


Notice how I “sudo su – root” to root and set ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH variables, otherwise install will fail if you simply “sudo python32 setup.py install”, since root (usually) doesn’t have profile with environment variables related to Oracle installation.

Make a short test:

$ python32
Python 3.2 (r32:88445, Mar 16 2011, 19:42:11) 
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import cx_Oracle
>>> print(cx_Oracle.version)
5.0.4
>>> print(cx_Oracle.clientversion())
(11, 2, 0, 2, 0)

PyYAML 3.09


$ cd ~/python/PyYAML
$ wget http://pyyaml.org/download/pyyaml/PyYAML-3.09.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf PyYAML-3.09.tar.gz
$ cd PyYAML-3.09
$ sudo python32 setup.py install
--
-- test PyYAML installation...
--
$ python32 setup.py test


lxml 2.3

Module lxml depends on libxml2 and libxslt libraries that could be installed from apt repository, but after reading what are the recommended versions of libraries in lxml documentation, I decided to install the latest versions ob both libraries from source.

$ cd ~/python/lxml
$ wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-2.7.8.tar.gz
$ wget ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
$ wget http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/l/lxml/lxml-2.3.tar.gz


$ tar xvzf libxml2-2.7.8.tar.gz
$ cd libxml2-2.7.8
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install


$ cd ..
$ tar xvzf libxslt-1.1.26.tar.gz
$ cd libxslt-1.1.26
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

Finally, we can install lxml:

$ tar xvzf lxml-2.3.tar.gz
$ cd lxml-2.3
$ python32 setup.py build
$ sudo python32 setup.py install


After installation run a test by printing versions of lxml, libxml2 and libxslt:

$ python32
>> from lxml import etree
>> print(etree.LXML_VERSION)
>> print(etree.LIBXML_VERSION)
>> print(etree.LIBXSLT_VERSION)

PyQt 4.8.3

I followed instructions that you can find at:
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/static/Docs/PyQt4/html/installation.html

Note:
After my first failed attempt to compile PyQt, I realized that I need to install libxext-dev to avoid error:

...
...
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lXext
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [QtHelp.so] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/alesk/python/PyQt/PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.3/QtHelp'
make: *** [all] Error 2
...

You can install the package with:

$ sudo apt-get install libxext-dev


Note: sip module is a prerequisite before we can configure & build PyQt!

$ cd PyQt
$ wget http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Downloads/sip4/sip-4.12.1.tar.gz
$ cd sip-4.12.1
$ python32 configure.py
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..


Now, we can download, build and install PyQt:

$ wget http://www.riverbankcomputing.com/static/Downloads/PyQt4/PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.3.tar.gz
$ tar xvzf PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.3.tar.gz
$ cd PyQt-x11-gpl-4.8.3
$ python32 configure.py

$ make
$ sudo make install


Make s simple test of PyQt installation…

$ python32
>> from PyQt4.QtCore import QT_VERSION_STR
>> print(QT_VERSION_STR)