[Eric] Can not run Python scripts and empty Shell - Eric3

[Chip Webber]

Hello,
After hearing so many wonderful things about Eric, I've decided to give it a
try.   However, I can't get the Shell inside Eric to work, or any python
scripts to run.  For sanity check I've run through the tutorials and docs,
but I'm stuck.

Starting eric3 fives the following warnings:
Warning: translation file 'qt_en_US.UTF-8'could not be loaded.
Using default.
Warning: translation file 'eric3_en_US.UTF-8'could not be loaded.
Using default.
Warning: translation file 'qscintilla_en_US.UTF-8'could not be loaded.
Using default. 

When Eric3 opens the Shell window is completely blank, there is no python
version information or '>>>' (start->Python has no effect).  On a simple
hello world script the Debug -> Run script does nothing.  Trying to execute
'print "hello"' in the Shell gives the following errors in stderr:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/eric3/ViewManager/ViewManager.py",
line 3817, in editorCommand
    self.ui.getShell().editorCommand(cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/eric3/QScintilla/Shell.py", line
577, in editorCommand
    self.supportedEditorCommands[cmd](cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/eric3/QScintilla/Shell.py", line
714, in handleQScintillaNewline
    self.executeCommand(buf)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/eric3/QScintilla/Shell.py", line
881, in executeCommand
    if len(self.history) == self.maxHistoryEntries:
TypeError: len() of unsized object

It looks like Eric can't talk to the python Shell to execute commands.  I've
poked around in Shell.py, but haven't been able to do any good.

I'm on Fedora Core 6 which provides a pre-compiled version of Eric3.9.1 and
supporting applications, so I'm rather surprised it doesn't work right out
of the box.  

Using:
Eric 3.9.1 (also tried 3.9.4)
Python 2.4.3
PyQt-3.17
Qt-3.3.7
PyQt-Qscintilla-3.17
Qscintilla-1.7
SIP 4.4.5 (also tried SIP 4.6)

Any Ideas??  I don't mind compiling newer versions of tools, but so far it
hasn't done any good :(  Being relatively new to Qt, PyQt, etc. I still
don't have a good understanding of how all the required packages are
related...

Thanks,
Chip