[PyKDE] Installation issues

[Jim Bublitz]

On Wednesday October 1 2003 18:26, Daniel Harker wrote:
> I am currently running redhat 9, and thought it would be a
> good idea to install the rpm version of PyKDE 3.7-0.  I
> installed it, and everything seemed to be fine, but then when
> I sent to run slickbar, an aplication for superkaramba, it
> complained and said that I never installed it!

> This is the error message:

> Could not load PyKDE.  QuickLaunchPanel will not run without
> it it is available at: http://....ect...

Can't say about rpms - I don't do them. (Cool though - I didn't 
know they used PyKDE)

> So naturally, I thought that maybe the rpm just didn't work
> with my system. So, I downloaded the source (tar.gz) and
> attempted to compile it.  When I did, it gave me this error:

> Couldn't import qt module from PyQT -- from like 698 in
> build.py

> So it won't even compile!  :(

> I have a hunch that it might be one of 2 things:

> 1.  Maybe I need to include the PyKDE libraries in my bash.rc
> file since the rpm can't do that.
> 2.  Maybe PyQt wasn't installed correctly.  I got the rpm's at
> www.sourceforge.net.  So I don't see why they should have a
> problem.  :(

You need the PyQt sources ("sip" files) installed somewhere to be 
able to build PyKDE from scratch. They're about the same as 
having the h files for library you want to link to. You don't 
necessarily need to compile PyQt if it's already installed, but 
you need a set of PyQt sip files. 

I believe the rpm guys/distributions provide a PyQt "devel" rpm 
or something similar that includes the sip files. If not, you 
can get a tarball of PyQt at :

    http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk

If you install those and get the same error msg, there is a 
command line switch (python build.py -h for a list) to let you 
specify the place where you've put them.

You also need to make sure that the version of PyKDE you're 
trying to compile agrees with the versions of PyQt and sip you 
have installed. The newer versions (last couple of releases) 
check for this.

> Well, I would really apreciate some help on this issue.  I've
> spent literally HOURS!  Thank you so much for reading this. 
> I'l be waiting for your reply.

I feel genuinely disappointed when people run into install 
problems with PyKDE. Sometimes it's my fault, sometimes it's 
something weird in a distribution, and sometimes it's "pilot 
error" as they say about airplane crashes. I'm willing to offer 
as much assistance as I can to help you get PyKDE working on 
your system, regardless of the cause of the problem.

I'd also urge you to take the time to get it working, because I 
think it is one of the coolest pieces of software I've ever 
seen. I say that not as a compliment to myself, since I'm mostly 
just the maintainer of PyKDE and not the creator of PyKDE or the 
underlying magic that makes it possible. There are a lot of 
great people contributing to it here to make it even cooler.

So while I am honestly sorry for the problems you've had and 
willing to help you solve them, sometimes I feel compelled to 
point out that you have absolutely no concept of how many hours 
*I* have spent compiling PyKDE. I would be happier if it just 
dropped into place on anybody's machine, but it's a complex 
piece of software (400+ files, 12 modules, 600+ classes, nearly 
10,000 methods, 1 maintainer + friends) sitting on top of many 
other pieces of complex software and things don't always work 
out the first time (or the second or even third in pathological 
cases). 

No risk offer: If you're not satisfied, we'll cheerfully refund 
your purchase price :)

Jim

PS: If you do run into more problems, it would be quicker if you 
just cut and paste the entire output from running build.py into 
an email - that'll provide all the necessary info on your system 
and environment to help troubleshoot the install.

If you can't cut and paste it, run "python build.py > output.txt" 
and attach output.txt to your msg.