Problems Finding and installing Tkinter

[Ralph Kaiser]

Jim Cochrane <jtc at dimensional.com> wrote in message
news:383ED44D.3E31C959 at dimensional.com...
> I've been trying, with no success, to install the Tkinter package for
> developing GUIs in Python.  First I tried downloading the latest version
> I could find on the net, as well as the latest version of Python, to
> make sure everything was in synch.  I then ran into problems with
> libraries needed for Tkinter.  After downloading and installing several,
> including tkinter, I still had problems and gave up.  (All of these were
> .rpm files.  The last error I remember getting was for an unresovled
> symbol:  __bzero.)
>
> Next I tried uninstalling everything I had installed, and then
> installing the version of Tkinter in my SuSE distribution (and
> reinstalling Python).  (I'm using SuSE 6.1.)  I made sure all the needed
> packages were installed, such as tk and tcl.  Again, no luck.  When
> I try to execute a simple example:
>
> #!/usr/bin/env python
>
> from Tkinter import *
> widget = Label (None, text = 'Hello GUI word!')
> widget.pack()
> widget.mainloop()
>
> I get the following error message:
>
> Traceback (innermost last):
>   File "gui1.py", line 3, in ?
>     from Tkinter import *
>   File "/usr/lib/python1.5/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 5, in ?
>     import _tkinter # If this fails your Python is not configured for Tk
>
> ImportError: /usr/X11R6/lib/libtk8.0.so: undefined symbol: panic
>
> So it's not finding a symbol named "panic".  I have no idea what library
> this should be in.
>
> Any help, clues, or pointers would be appreciated.  Also, I think
> another way to do this might be to download and install the latest
> version of everything needed for Tkinter - as I tried to do before - but
> obtaining everything from the same place as one consistent package.
> Does anyone know if this is possible and, if so, where I should look for
> this?


Basically, the _tkinter module in Python is not enabled by default.
Find ../Python-1.5.2/Modules/Setup. In the section marked "The _tkinter
module." you'll find instructuions to enable _tkinter. You might be able to
just make and make install the Modules directory, but I usually do the
entire Python distribution. Good luck.

Ralph