Unable to install tkinter with pyenv Pythons on MacOS

by

TL;DR set the env. vars. mentioned in tcl-tk‘s caveats and this GitHub comment when installing new Pythons via pyenv to get tkinter.

First, ensure you have the latest tcl-tk via homebrew and then pay attention to its caveats:

※ brew install tcl-tk
※ brew info tcl-tk
tcl-tk: stable 8.6.10 (bottled) [keg-only]
...
==> Caveats
tcl-tk is keg-only, which means it was not symlinked into /usr/local,
because tk installs some X11 headers and macOS provides an (older) Tcl/Tk.

If you need to have tcl-tk first in your PATH run:
  echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

For compilers to find tcl-tk you may need to set:
  export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/lib"
  export CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/include"

For pkg-config to find tcl-tk you may need to set:
  export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/lib/pkgconfig"
...

You’ll also need to know about pyenv’s PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS, --with-tcltk-includes, and --with-tcltk-libs, e.g. from this comment.

Next, reinstall Python with the environment variables active:

※ pyenv uninstall 3.8.1
※ env \
  PATH="$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/bin:$PATH" \
  LDFLAGS="-L$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/lib" \
  CPPFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/include" \
  PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/lib/pkgconfig" \
  CFLAGS="-I$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/include" \
  PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS="--with-tcltk-includes="-I$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/include" --with-tcltk-libs="-L$(brew --prefix tcl-tk)/lib -ltcl8.6 -ltk8.6"" \
  pyenv install 3.8.1

It should work now:

※ pyenv global 3.8.1
※ python
Python 3.8.1 (default, Feb 29 2020, 11:56:10)
[Clang 11.0.0 (clang-1100.0.33.17)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tkinter
>>> tkinter.TclVersion, tkinter.TkVersion
(8.6, 8.6)
>>> tkinter._test()
# You should get a GUI

If you get the following error, you might be missing the PYTHON_CONFIGURE_OPTS env. var. above.

DEPRECATION WARNING: The system version of Tk is deprecated and may be removed in a future release. Please don't rely on it. Set TK_SILENCE_DEPRECATION=1 to suppress this warning.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/Users/factor/.pyenv/versions/3.8.1/lib/python3.8/tkinter/__init__.py", line 4552, in _test
    root = Tk()
  File "/Users/factor/.pyenv/versions/3.8.1/lib/python3.8/tkinter/__init__.py", line 2263, in __init__
    self._loadtk()
  File "/Users/factor/.pyenv/versions/3.8.1/lib/python3.8/tkinter/__init__.py", line 2279, in _loadtk
    raise RuntimeError("tk.h version (%s) doesn't match libtk.a version (%s)"
RuntimeError: tk.h version (8.6) doesn't match libtk.a version (8.5)

More Related Contents:

  1. How to change the foreground or background colour of a Tkinter Button on Mac OS X?
  2. How to Install and Use TkDnD with Python Tkinter on OSX?
  3. Why does Python installed via Homebrew not include Tkinter
  4. Tkinter on mac shows up as a black screen
  5. Change title of Tkinter application in OS X Menu Bar
  6. Python countdown clock with GUI [duplicate]
  7. How do I determine if my python shell is executing in 32bit or 64bit?
  8. ImportError: No module named ‘Tkinter’
  9. Cannot install Lxml on Mac OS X 10.9
  10. How to update the image of a Tkinter Label widget?
  11. ImportError when importing Tkinter in Python [duplicate]
  12. Getting values from object oriented tkinter [duplicate]
  13. Calling functions from a Tkinter Frame to another
  14. How to delete Tkinter widgets from a window?
  15. Tk treeview column sort
  16. Find position of another anchor than the anchor already used
  17. Is there any way to use Tkinter with Google Colaboratory?
  18. How to create a hyperlink with a Label in Tkinter?
  19. Tkinter window says (not responding) but code is running
  20. ImportError: No module named pip
  21. Image resize under PhotoImage
  22. How do I change the background of a Frame in Tkinter?
  23. stdout to tkinter GUI
  24. How to clear the Entry widget after a button is pressed in Tkinter?
  25. Unable to import opengl.gl in python on macos
  26. env: python\r: No such file or directory
  27. How to run a code whenever a Tkinter widget value changes?
  28. pyinstaller No module named pyinstaller
  29. How to install NumPy for python 3.3.5 on Mac OSX 10.9
  30. How to get the Tkinter Label text?

Leave a Comment