Installing Python (2.7) 'by hand' on Ubuntu - possible?

[Chris Green]

Michael Torrie <torriem at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 12/22/20 8:10 AM, Chris Green wrote:
> > I have (as discussed here) a printer utility that uses Python 2 and I
> > can't update it to Python 3 because it has a .so library file which is
> > compiled for Python 2.  I think I have exhausted all the possibilities
> > for converting it to Python 3 so now I'm looking at how to keep it
> > working on my [x]ubuntu Linux systems as Python 2.7 becomes unsupported.
> > 
> > How realistic/possible would it be to run the utility in a separate
> > environment with its own copies of Python2 and any modules and
> > libraries needed?  I would install these 'by hand', i.e. not using
> > 'apt' so they would stay as installed even as my system gets upgraded. 
> > 
> > There would obviously be *some* dependencies on the system libraries
> > but I think they'd be pretty low level and thus their interfaces would
> > be very unlikely to change for a long time so I should be able to run
> > my old Python2.7 and the Python modules needed for the utility for
> > quite a few years anyway (the printer it supports will wear out
> > eventually!).
> 
> Probably your best bet is to build a container image (perhaps a snap)
> around with a distro that has Python 2.7 in it to house your app. That
> way you've got everything you need including the required system
> libraries.  Right now you could build a image of it based on Ubuntu
> 20.04 which has python 2.7 as an optional installable package.
> 
I have it running on 20.04 (with a couple of compatibility packages
from a PPA) but I know I start hitting problems as soon as I move to
20.10.  So that does sound like an excellent idea.  Where can I find
information about building container type things like snap?

-- 
Chris Green
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