[PyQt] PyQt on BeagleBone

[David Boddie]

On Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:46:11 -0500, Mark wrote:

> I'm developing a commercial project using a BeagleBone system-on-module.
> This runs Angstrom Linux:
>
> Angstrom v2012.05 (Core edition)
>
> Target system: arm-angstrom-linux-gnueabi
>
> I'd very much prefer to use PyQt for the GUI development for this project.
> I'd like to buy a commercial license for it right away, from Riverbank.
> Sadly it's out of the question thus far, because the latest PyQt package
> for Angstrom is based on Angstrom distro 2011.03.  As far as I can tell,
> images of that Angstrom version are no longer available.  Else I'd just
> roll the system back to that version in order to install and use PyQt.

I haven't really looked at Angstrom for a while. The Gumstix board I was
using came with a version of the distribution, but I didn't get into using
it. Instead, I was building a distribution from scratch.

> I've tried forcing the older (2011.03) packages of PyQt and SIP to install
> on the 2012.05 Angstrom.  I ran down the dependencies and verified their
> presence myself.  Even with workarounds for the problems that causes, I
> still get error messages in Python which I suspect are caused by missing
> libraries (of C).  Naturally I first made a backup of the system's SD card
> (its entire boot & root media) so I can start fresh if needed.

Can you post the error messages? It might help to diagnose the problem.

> I've read every scrap of info I could find on the web for this situation.
> All day.  Tried several avenues to proceed.  I've already canvassed the
> Angstrom site, the Qt site, the BeagleBone site, the Python site, and
> everything else on the first several pages of a dozen Google searches.  All
> dead ends.

Can you say some more about what exactly you want? For example, which
version of PyQt/Qt you need. Additionally, the package for python-pyqt-dev
is using an X11 version of Qt. Is that what you want, or are you going to
be using Qt/Embedded?

  http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo/?pkgname=python-pyqt-dev

I noticed that there's an online rootfs builder for the distribution. Does
that help at all?

  http://narcissus.angstrom-distribution.org/

> Is there someone I can pay $$$ to resolve this problem within a few days?
> For example by compiling PyQt from source code for this environment?  I'm
> an accomplished desktop and embedded programmer, though I have very bad
> luck compiling other people's C code in situations like this.  But I do
> have access to some money for the person who can do it.  I also have a
> BeagleBone to use for this purpose if it helps.  And a PC that can be used
> remotely to accomplish this.

I would like to help you, though I can't accept payment for it - I don't
think my employer would approve. :-) However, I'm not going to be able to
give you advice until mid-August, so I think you'll need to find someone
else. There should be people reading this list with embedded hardware
experience, so someone may come forward.

Just in case it is useful to someone, I should mention that there's a
repository with some scripts to help build Python/Qt/PyQt for non-X11-based
devices here:

  https://bitbucket.org/dboddie/pyqt4-for-embedded-linux

It's a bit out of date now because I haven't updated the patches for recent
versions of PyQt. Maybe someone will be able to update them to current
releases.

I tried to help someone using a Freescale i.MX board a while ago and put
some pre-built libraries in an archive. It's probably not that useful for
many people, but you never know:

  https://bitbucket.org/dboddie/pyqt4-for-embedded-linux/downloads

David