[Tkinter-discuss] How to configure the non-default Python version to work with tk

[Tim Jones]

On Feb 17, 2010, at 8:41 AM, Noelia Oses wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I have a very newby question.
> I'm using a computer with Ubuntu Karmic Koala.
> The Ubuntu has python 2.6 installed by default, and this default installation includes tkinter.
> 
> However, I'm using a platform (NuPIC) that needs Python 2.5. This I had to install manually in /usr/local.
> Unfortunately, the manually installed version that I need doesn't seem to be able to find the tkinter libraries.
> 
> I have tried with "sudo apt-get install python2.5-tk" but it doesn't install it as it notices there is a newer version already.

Unfortunately, I suspect that your only option will be to physically build your own Python / TKInter pair from sources, specifying the --prefix=/usr/local argument to config if you want to keep the default 2.6 version installed.  The versions in the apt repositories all expect you to want the latest version or to be able to remove a newer version in deference to the older version.  The odd thing is, you should be able to have multiple versions of Python installed without conflict, so it appears that the package makers didn't take that into account.

HTH,
Tim