The Second Order Effect

RHEL5 / CentOS5 RPMs for Python 2.5 and 2.6

by on Nov.18, 2009, under Tech Articles, Uncategorized

EDIT : Newer Instructions are here.

this is a repost from my old site.

I’ve created RPMs for RHEL 5.0, 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3, as well as CentOS 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2 for Python 2.5 and 2.6.

The RHEL/CentOS line only supports Python 2.4, and as it’s an integral part of yum and many other packages, any installation of new Pythons will require parallel installation.

(Note : Currently, the 2.5 and 2.6 RPMs cannot both be installed without an RPM –force)

TODO : Repository URL & GPG signing

As for the RPMs themselves :

Download

Caveats

Neither of these packages fully pass the Python test suite (import test.autotest).

That being said, we’ve been using the Python 2.5 package, released by Bashton, in production for a while now, and we haven’t seen any problems.

4 tests failed: test_distutils test_email test_email_renamed test_nis

I don’t know about email, but there are patches for CentOS/Fedora against distutils, so I expect that’s why it fails the test.

For Python 2.6, note the following :

  • I had to gimp autoconf’s version detection to force it to use 2.59. This may have unintended consequences
  • This RPM uses patches from the Fedora Core 11 Alpha release. (python-2.6-4.fc11 specifically). As Fedora updates this package, I’ll release updates. (Feel free to email to remind.)

Usage

Just install the RPMs for the version that you want. You’ll need at least the base python version package and the libs package.
To start Python 2.6, type python26 at your commandline rather than python. (Your original Python 2.4 is still installed.)
If you’re installing packages with setuptools, make sure to use the correct python version. (i.e. python26 setup.py install)
If you’d like to build an x86_64, call rpmbuild –rebuild with the appropriate arch setting.

:,

9 Comments for this entry

  • ornicum
    December 18th, 2009 on 6:58 am

    Hi! I have a problem with installation python-2.6 on CentOS. It’s need libs and when I try to install libs I see this:
    [root@~]# rpm -ihv python26-libs-2.6-geekymedia1.i386.rpm
    error: Failed dependencies:
    python26 = 2.6-geekymedia1 is needed by python26-libs-2.6-geekymedia1.i386
    What can I do to fix it?
    Best regards, ornicum.

  • Rizwan Kassim
    December 23rd, 2009 on 5:57 pm

    ornicum,

    install both the python26libs and python26 at the same time.

  • Sharath
    December 27th, 2009 on 1:53 pm

    Hi First I dont know about the errors that i have to install all the required packages along with the python 2.6 installation(RHEL5). So I installed it. Now what should I do. Do i need uninstall?? and install your RPM’s? How to do uninstall (am new to RPM world) and what ORDER do I need follow for above packages for your rpm installation simply “rpm -ivh” dows that would be enough. Thanks in advance

  • guy_need_x64_python
    January 11th, 2010 on 3:01 am

    Is there a x64 version available ?

  • Jonathan
    January 31st, 2010 on 12:45 pm

    Thanks for packaging python 2.6 for EL5.

    It would be nice if you would consider managing these pacakges in EPEL (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL).

    It would make distribution and installation somewhat easier as well as you reaching a bigger audience.

    Kind regards,

    Jonathan

  • MS
    June 8th, 2010 on 4:27 pm

    Where can I find the CentOS rpm for python 2.6.5 and equivalent python-devel for 64 bit hosts?
    Thanks.

  • Luca
    August 30th, 2010 on 5:50 am

    hi,
    I try to install the packages on Centos 5.2, but I obtein the following error:

    [root@localhost python2.6]# rpm -Uvh python26-* tkinter26-2.6-geekymedia1.i386.rpm
    error: Failed dependencies:
    libTix8.4.so is needed by tkinter26-2.6-geekymedia1.i386

    I try to search the libTix8.4.20 for my Centos with no results-

    regards

  • reseph
    October 15th, 2010 on 3:47 pm

    From what I can tell, this is a UCS4 build? It creates many incompatibilities namely this: http://effbot.org/pyfaq/when-importing-module-x-why-do-i-get-undefined-symbol-pyunicodeucs2.htm

    Can you confirm this is a UCS4 build?

  • Inderpreet Singh
    November 15th, 2010 on 8:04 pm

    Hi Luca,

    To fi those dependencies, just do:
    yum install tix tcl tk

    And then the dependencies will be all set for tkinter by geekymedia.

    Thanks.

1 Trackback or Pingback for this entry

  • Installing Orbited on CentOS 5 - ToxicComa
    February 3rd, 2010 on 10:09 am

    [...] The first step is to install Python 2.5. Sadly, we can’t simply update the Python 2.4 that comes stock with CentOS 5 as it is required for yum to work properly. To get around this we will be installing a parallel version of Python 2.5. This part of the setup is using the parallel install of Python as described and created by Geekymedia.com. [...]

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