Configuring IDLE on Linux

[Ben C]

On 2006-07-14, Adonis <adonis at DELETETHISTEXTearthlink.net> wrote:
> Satya Kiran wrote:
>> Hello,
>> I have upgraded to Python2.4 on my Red Hat 9.0 Linux box.
>> I want to work with IDLE and ran a search to check it's presence.
>> Here is what I get.
>> 
>> [root at localhost bin]# find / -iname idlelib
>> /usr/local/lib/python2.4/idlelib
>> 
>> [root at localhost bin]# cd /usr/local/lib/python2.4/idlelib
>> [root at localhost idlelib]# python PyShell.py
>> ** IDLE can't import Tkinter.  Your Python may not be configured for Tk. **
>> 
>> How do I resolve this and get IDLE working?
>> 
>> thanks in advance,
>> Kiran Satya
>
> You must have the Tk libraries present in your system for Python to 
> compile Tkinter. Go to your distribution's site and try to see if they 
> offer a TCL/TK package and install it (being that it is Redhat they most 
> definitely must have one). Then recompile Python.

This is exactly right, on a SUSE system (at least) it's the tk-devel and
tcl-devel packages you need to have installed, because you're building
Python and it needs to link against those things, not just use them. So
although tcl/tk on its own it usually installed by default, you don't
always get those -devel packages in a default setup.