_imaging C module error in python PIL

7
votes

I have read the other posts about the notorious _imaging C module error when installing PIL on Mac OS X and none of the solutions provided anywhere, including the PIL FAQ, have proven helpful.

I have the newest versions of libjpeg and zlib freshly installed from source. I have edited the Makefiles in each of these to include the option -arch i386 in the LD_FLAGS variable for 32-bit builds. PIL installs with no problems of any kind and the install summary printed to the terminal says that JPEG, TIFF, and PNG support are all OK. After that I try the self test:

new-host:Imaging-1.1.7 ely$ python selftest.py 
*** The _imaging C module is not installed

This is commonly seen for a variety of reasons. Probing deeper, here I try to import _imaging directly in python.

new-host:Imaging-1.1.7 ely$ python
ActivePython 2.7.1.4 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Feb  7 2011, 11:33:10) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5664)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import PIL
>>> import _imaging
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.so, 2): Symbol not found: _jpeg_resync_to_restart
  Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.so
  Expected in: dynamic lookup

Here again, the 'Symbol not found: _jpeg_resync_to_restart' is notorious and common, and many people have suggested this has to do with incorrect path to libjpeg. I've checked again and again and I only have libjpeg (as well as zlib, etc.) installed in my home directory, all in separate folders, from source, and all of this is marked correctly in the file setup.py.

So, PIL should be getting its jpeg support (and zlib, etc.) from the right places. All the dependencies are installed. I can see _imaging.so in my sys.path, yet I still get this _jpeg_resync_to_restart error.

Are there any ideas that don't link to alternate posts? I have spent ~7 hours reading and trying possible solutions from posts in every forum I can find.

9
pythonpython-imaging-librarylibjpeg

9 Answers

8
votes

Since you have been trying this a few times, I recommend running a few commands to clean out the old items first and start from the beginning.

I used jpeg v8c and Imaging 1.1.6 on Mac OS X, 10.6 and 10.7

get v8c of jpeg cd into jpeg directory.

sudo make clean
CC="gcc -arch i386" ./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
make
sudo make install

get imaging i am using 1.1.6

untar cd into imaging

sudo rm -rf build
vi setup.py
JPEG_ROOT = libinclude(“/usr/local/lib”)
sudo python setup.py install

And it’s that simple

Run your python interpreter,

import PIL
import _imaging
import Image

if all is well, then your all set.

Here is the full article on my blog Python 2.7, OSX Lion, PIL and Imaging

4
votes

I have faced the same problem this evening on my mac running Mac OS X v10.7.5, Python v2.7.1 with PIL Imaging 1.1.7 and jpeg 8d.

Summarizing - the key to success in my case was:

export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"

Nothing from the other answers have solved the issue, constantly I've been getting: The _imaging C module is not installed caused by: Symbol not found: _jpeg_resync_to_restart.

Digging here and there finally I've found the solution, at least works for me:

  • ensure you don't have any obvious libjpeg libs on the system: find / -iname "libjpe*" will tell you that. I have temporarily changed places where they exist so no one could find them (especially /sw was interacting with PIL in my case):

    mv opt opt-OFF  
mv sw sw-OFF

These locations have been created by mac ports and fink - be warned that it is quite possible that FREETYPE2 might not be found by PIL after this move - if you need it, then just rename libjpeg parts in those locations.

  • in PIL Imaging src directory edit setup.py as described above to set JPEG_ROOT to /usr/local, try to run: 

    rm -rf build ; python setup.py build 2> /tmp/err > /tmp/log

Check in /tmp/log - you should not see JPEG support available. You can now go to the next step.

  • go to jpeg-8d src directory and run:

    export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"  
sudo make clean; CC="gcc -arch x86_64" ./configure --enable-shared --enable-static  
sudo make install

  • go back to PIL Imaging, run these commands:

    export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"  
sudo rm -rf build ; python setup.py build 2> /tmp/err > /tmp/log

Check in /tmp/log - you should now see "JPEG support available", check /tmp/err - search for "jpeg" - if you see something like this: ld: warning: ignoring file /usr/local/lib/libjpeg.dylib, file was built for unsupported file format which is not the architecture being linked (i386) - then the arch flags (both set by ARCHFLAGS and -arch) failed to trigger - investigate that case, it is crucial. If you don't see this, then you're lucky and you can invoke the installation:

export ARCHFLAGS="-arch x86_64"  
sudo rm -rf build ; sudo python setup.py install

Check if your PIL works:

python selftest.py

or 

echo "import _imaging" | python && echo "Works"

I hope this helps.

2
votes

The problem is that the _imaging module is linked to libjpeg dynamically, not statically. The libjpeg code is not included in the _imaging module directly. This means that your platform's dynamic linker has to be able to find libjpeg in order to load and link it. My MacOS knowledge here is fuzzy, but as I recall its dynamic linker is called dyld, and its manpage may provide more information on the options you have.

Normally, the platform's dynamic linker won't be looking in your homedirectory for libraries -- but you can tell it to, for example by setting the DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, or editing the system-wide configuration (if there is one.) Setting that environment variable usually has to be done before you start Python, though, so it may not be suitable. You may want to try to embed the runtime search path into the _imaging extension module, which is usually done by passing -rpath to the linker -- but I don't know if MacOS's linker offers that capability. Finally, you can just build libjpeg as a static library, instead of a shared one, and have the _imaging module link against that. That would avoid the whole shared library situation for libjpeg. For libjpeg, this is probably done by running its configure script with --enable-static --disable-shared.

2
votes

I tried many most all of these suggestions (as well as two other suggestions on referenced blogs) on an old 10.6 Mac install. None of them worked as-is, however, reading behind the lines I was able to fix my problem. I added to the PIL setup.py in find_include_file() right before the return 1 line "print os.path.join(directory, include)". This allowed me to track down which libjpeg PIL is building against. Then I would build PIL, find the libjpeg it referenced (various copies in /sw, /opt/, /usr/local/lib, ...), and delete that libjpeg (both header and lib files).

Finally with a clean system I built and installed libjpeg source tarball that I'd downloaded myself, followed by building and installing PIL from source. This worked. As a fallback you could always disable libjpeg by removing the above files as described or else always returning zero from the described above function in setup.py.

1
votes

Works well for me on Mountain Lion 10.8.2:

Step One. Removing all jpeg packages. For MacPorts:

sudo port -f uninstall jpeg or sudo port -f uninstall jpeg @version_here

We need to remove all jpeg versions!

Step Two. Remove PIL: pip uninstall PIL

Step Three. Install jpeg package again. For MacPorts: sudo port install jpeg

Step Four. Install PIL again: pip install PIL

>>> import PIL
>>> import _imaging

No errors!

How to remove ALL jpeg packages?

$ port installed | grep -i jpeg
jpeg @8c_0
jpeg @9a_0 (active)

$ sudo port -f uninstall jpeg @8c_0
$ sudo port -f uninstall jpeg @9a_0

Don't care about dependies. Beacause we need to install jpeg package again:

$ sudo port install jpeg
1
votes

I ran into all the errors you guys have mentioned. I broke down and just used virtualenv and installed Pillow instead. it worked:

sudo pip install virtualenv
virtualenv python_script && cd !$
. /activate/bin
pip install Pillow
0
votes

I had the same problem, with Python 2.7 and OSX Lion, and basically followed @ApPeL process and re-installed libjpeg and PIL. libjpeg seemed to be installed correctly, and PIL seemed to find it correctly, but running python -v and then import _imaging gave always this error:

ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/_imaging.so, 2): Symbol not found: _jpeg_resync_to_restart

After installing and re-installing libjpeg (version 8d) and PIL (version 1.1.7) twenty times with slightly different options, what did the trick was making sure I removed all libjpeg files under /usr/local/include (headers), as well as the files under /user/local/lib.

I didn't need to install PIL from source, I used pip install pil

0
votes

I have been attempting to install PIL (OS X 10.7.5, Python 2.7.3) for about 5 hours. I too have been bogged down with the 'Symbol not found: _jpeg_resync_to_restart" error and have tried many of the proposed solutions to no avail, including reinstalling all of its dependencies. Finally, I discovered a double-clickable installation of Pillow.

Thank you Rudix! Now "import PIL" and "import _imaging" work!

p.s. I had installed libjpeg via i didn't specifically delete this install, so I'm not sure if this was part of the final solution or not.