VMD-L Mailing List

From: Martinek Tamas (martinek_at_pharm.u-szeged.hu)
Date: Tue Feb 14 2006 - 08:58:15 CST

Dear All,
 
I made an attempt to install VMD-1.8.4b11 binary package and IED-2.02 on
a Red Hat 9. I made the following sequence:
 
1. Checked the preinstaled packages
python-2.2.2-26 (RH9 distribution)
Numeric-24.2 (Downloaded, Numeric-22 is not available at Sourceforge)
tkinter-2.2.2-26 (RH9 distribution)
tk-8.3.5-88 (RH9 distribution)
tcl-8.3.5-88 (RH9 distribution)
fltk-1.1.6-1.0 (Downloaded as RH9 rpm)
 
2. Configured and installed VMD with "make install" into the default
locations (/usr/local/{bin,lib})

3. "set env(PYTHONHOME) /usr" in .vmdrc

4. Launched VMD with: "vmd -python", and got the following error
messages:
  
Info) Starting Python...
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Info) Text interpreter now Python
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in ?
  File "/usr/local/lib/vmd/scripts/python/Tkinter.py", line 59, in ?
    import _tkinter # If this fails your Python may not be configured
for Tk
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.2/lib-dynload/_tkinter.so: undefined
symbol:
PyUnicodeUCS4_AsUTF8String
 

As I learned from the VMD and Python mailing lists, the "import site"
problem usually comes in python version conflict. But python-2.2 should
match VMD's python version.
 
Finally I checked Python in standalone mode, and it recognizes nicely
both _tkinter and numeric-python (numeric_version, _numpy); they can be
imported manually outside vmd.
 
What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help!
 
Tamas

Tamas Martinek
Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry
University of Szeged
6720 Szeged Eotvos u. 6, Hungary
phone: +36 62 545768
fax: +36 62 545705