python - TKinter in a Virtualenv

Question

Trying to run python code with TKinter-based widgets from a virtualenv.

    user@computer:~/myproject$ env/bin/python Python
    2.7.3 (default, Sep 26 2012, 21:51:14)  [GCC 4.7.2] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import Tkinter 
Traceback (most recent call last):   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>   File "/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 42, in <module>
        raise ImportError, str(msg) + ', please install the python-tk package' ImportError: No module named _tkinter, please install the python-tk package

What is the proper way to install TK to the virtualenv?

Answer 1

Set the environment variable TCL_LIBRARY in your activate script. On Windows (Python 2.7 with Tcl 8.5), just add this line to Scripts\activate.bat:

set "TCL_LIBRARY=C:\Python27\tcl\tcl8.5"

@Jasper van den Bosch's edit: On Ubuntu, the modification to the script activate is the following:

TK_LIBRARY=/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL:/usr/lib
TKPATH=/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk:/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL:/usr/lib 
TCL_LIBRARY=/usr/lib 
export TCL_LIBRARY TK_LIBRARY TKPATH

The reference of this can be found on this question on askubuntu

Answer 2

I manage to integrate tkinter in python3 to virtualenv by symlink tkinter folder to virtualenv python3. I works for me. But I don't know if it's the right way.

1. install tkinter

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

2. go to your virtualenv's python lib folder

cd ~/.virtualenvs/cv/lib/python3.4/

3. link the tkinter

ln -s /usr/lib/python3.4/tkinter tkinter

Hope this helps.

In later versions of python, this may result in a

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_tkinter'

In this case, ensure to also symlink
/usr/lib/python3.x/lib-dynload/_tkinter.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
as path/to/virtualenv/lib/python3.x/lib-dynload/_tkinter.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so using

ln -s /usr/lib/python3.x/lib-dynload/_tkinter.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so _tkinter.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so

from within your virtualenv lib/python3.x/lib-dynload/ directory.

Answer 3

I am using python2.7 with a virtualenv on a machine running linux mint. I received the exact same error as mentioned by the OP when running an application that required matplotlib in my virtualenv. "ImportError: No module named _tkinter, please install the python-tk package"

I ended up deleting and recreating my virtual environment using the suggestions in the above posts. Here are my steps:

1. if your virtual environment is activated, then run this command to freeze the requirements to a file that you can access later: pip freeze > requirements.txt
2. if your virtual environment is activated, then deactivate it using: deactivate
3. delete your virtualenv folder.
4. install python-tk using: sudo apt-get install python-tk
5. recreate your virtualenv using: virtualenv <nameofyourenv> --system-site-packages
6. next, activate your virtualenv: source <virtual environment folder>/bin/activate
7. restore all your packages that you froze earlier from the requirements.txt file: pip install -r <path to requirements.txt file>

now, when I run the same code as before, it has no problem importing _tkinter. Hope this helps! Thanks to the everyone's suggestions above. It really helped me a lot.

Answer 4

This is really an update to the great answer from A. Rodas for use with Python 3.4 and Tcl 8.6 (I don't have enough reputation points to comment).

Set the environment variable TCL_LIBRARY in your activate script. On Windows (Python 3.4 with Tcl 8.6), just add this line to Scripts\activate.bat:

set "TCL_LIBRARY=C:\Python34\tcl\tcl8.6"

I came across this issue while using Windows 7, Python 3.4, and ggplot in a virtual environment.

Answer 5

To get this working in powershell, you have to edit the activate.ps1 file instead of activate.bat. Just add the following to activate.ps1: $env:TCL_LIBRARY = "C:\Python27\tcl\tcl8.5"

Answer 6

clone the cpython project

git clone [email protected]:python/cpython.git

cd to the cpython directory. git checkout the desired version of your virtual env(for me it is 3.4), and build it with

./configure
make
make test
sudo make install

you will find an so file _tkinter.cpython-xxx.so in a subdir of the build/ directory, copy it to your venv's lib-dynload dir. (for me it is ~/tf1.1py3.4/lib/python3.4/lib-dynload/)

Answer 7

Also an update from answer by A.Rodas - I have tried doing that in Windows 7 using Windows Powershell but wasn't able to get it done (I also do not have enough reputation points to comment

I realized even when I added the line set "TCL_LIBRARY=C:\Python27\tcl\tcl8.5" and the corresponding one for the tk library, to the activate.bat script, the tcl link was not getting updated, and what I needed to do was just go to the directory where it's looking for the tcl files, and copy the corresponding tcl and tk files to that directory. Now the file is in the default location so you don't need to update activate.bat everytime you create a new environment

Answer 8

For me the solution was copying the folder tcl from

C:\Users\{myUser}\Python3.5\tcl

to

C:\Users\{myUser}\{myVirtualEnv}

replace {myUser} and {myVirtualEnv} with your specific directory names.

Answer 9

In case this helps those scratching their heads after reading through all the answers here - it also seems that you might need to re-create your virtualenv in case you created it before installing python3.6-tk. None of the solutions with specifying TK_PATH and TCL_PATH seemed to work, even when using the paths given by tkinter outside the virtual environment (see this post). To be sure, just delete the venv and create a new one.