Solved: install PsychoPy 2023.1.1 on Ubuntu 22.04

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This is for those who might be having problems installing PsychoPy 2023.1.1 on Ubuntu 22.04. After trying nearly all the options suggested on forums and the PsychoPy install page and failing, I finally got a fully functional PsychoPy install using the following steps:

  1. create a virtual env (12. Virtual Environments and Packages — Python 3.11.3 documentation)
  2. set the python version to 3.8 for the virtual env
    virtualenv --python=“/usr/bin/python3.8” “/path/to/new/virtualenv/” (3.8 must be installed)
  3. activate the virtual env source env/bin/activate
  4. download PsychoPy-2023.1.1.zip from GitHub (Releases · psychopy/psychopy · GitHub)
  5. extract PsychoPy from zip file
  6. pip install wx wheel for Ubuntu version (Index of /wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3) I used pip install wxPython-4.1.1-cp38-cp38-linux_x86_64.whl
  7. cd to the PsychoPy folder and use command: ./setup.py build
  8. when build completes, use command: ./setup.py install
  9. pip install any missing modules causing install error. Fix with: python -m pip install “missing module” In general, for any failure due to a missing module during the install, install the missing module and then ./setup.py install again

Note: you may need to install wxpython (wxPython · PyPI) or other modules - just follow the error messages

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2

This approach also worked in a conda environment, with pip install as used in your example.

 conda create --name psychopy python=3.8 --solver=libmamba
3

I confirm that the recipe worked in a conda environment, created with python=3.8 (as suggested by Simon_Ruch), on my Debian bookworm system.

However, I did not need to install wxPython via a wheel. When running the command ./setup.py install, version 4.2.0 of the wxPython module was downloaded and built. This needs the libgtk-3-dev package installed in the system. Supposing that the release tarball is unpacked in the PsychoPy-2023.1.2 directory, these are the commands that worked for me™:

sudo apt install libgtk-3-dev
conda create -n psychopy python=38
conda activate psychopy
cd PsychoPy-2023.1.2
./setup.py build
pip install distro
pip install attrdict
./setup.py install
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I am using Linux Mint 21.3 (based on Ubuntu 22.04). The suggested method did not work for me. I followed Rafael’s steps and get the following error during execution of ./setup.py install

tmp/easy_install-18j9_ehv/tables-3.9.2/temp/H5close23v0l0ld.c:1:10: fatal error: H5public.h: No such file or directory
1 | #include “H5public.h”
| ^~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
… ERROR:: Could not find a local HDF5 installation.
You may need to explicitly state where your local HDF5 headers and
library can be found by setting the HDF5_DIR environment
variable or by using the --hdf5 command-line option.
error: Setup script exited with 1

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

5

FWIW, I couldn’t make Catherine’s solution to work – it always stumbled over the pip installation of esprima.
But Simon’s/Rafael’s suggestions worked out in the end. After installing a lot of extra needed packages with pip, PsychoPy started up but complained about not finding GLIBCXX_3.4.30. This could be fixed with
conda install -c conda-forge libstdcxx-ng
(found at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73836387/how-to-fix-glibcxx-3-4-30-not-found-in-ubuntu-22-04, the bottom 0-rated answer).

So now PsychoPy 2023.1.3 (yes, I only realized afterwards I didn’t work with the exact same version as either Catherine or Rafael…) is happily up and running on Debian 12/bookworm, with amd64 kernel 6.6.13, X-Windows and Qt 5.15.8.

Thank you all!

6

P.S.: Installation worked even more smoothly with the latest PsychoPy version, 2024.1.4.
Just pip install . did it all.

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I’m using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Psychopy 2024.2.4
I tried conda env and failed
I tried python -m venv and failed
I tried pip install . and failed
I tried Python 3.8 3.9 3.10 and failed
I tried Psychopy’s own instructions and failed
I asked God, Jesus, David, and Muhammad for help and they ignored me like always
Finally, I found this dude providing AN EXCELLENT INSTALLER on GITHUB that INSTALLS PSYCHOPY on UBUNTU with ONLY ONE COMMAND

Here’s the proof that this dude is probably a prophet, God or something of that sort.

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image1920×1080 189 KB

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