Dependency issues involving python

[Arndtwe]

I am currently trying to install a program that requires a specific version or older of python to be installed. So, I installed an older version of python next to my current version. I now have python 2.5 and 2.6 installed. The problem is, when I try to install the program that depends on an older version of python, it doesn't seem to know that an older version is there. All it sees is the newer version.

Can someone help to get this program to "call" the old version of python?

P.S. The program in question here is "python-gpsbabel" which, itself, is a dependency for the program cache901. Cache901 is really what I'm trying to get installed here.

[astrakhan]

instead of python programname.py, try:

python2.5 programname.py

that should call the older version.

[Arndtwe]

Okay, If I have to resort to compiling the program myself, I will use that. But for right now, I am trying to do all of this via synaptic. Is there a way that I can get it call the older version, and still use synaptic? Or is this hopeless through synaptic?

[jkysam]

Have you tried "update-alternatives" to try to change the version of python to 2.5?

[Arndtwe]

Have you tried "update-alternatives" to try to change the version of python to 2.5?

No, But my problem is not needing python 2.5. I have that, what I need is for python-gpsbabel to know that.

[jkysam]

I take that the problem is that the command "python" which "python-gpsbabel" might be trying to use is associated with with python version 2.6. The only way I can think of changing the version associated with python through the synaptic-package manager would be using "update-alternatives" but i don't know if it works.

What I do to change the default version of python in the system is the following.
On my machine I have two versions of python:
{code}
~$ ls -l /usr/bin/ | grep python
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 7835 2009-03-09 11:42 dh_python
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2009-06-28 12:34 pdb2.5 -> ../lib/python2.5/pdb.py
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 23 2009-06-12 14:59 pdb2.6 -> ../lib/python2.6/pdb.py
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2009-06-12 14:59 python -> python2.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1177204 2009-04-04 15:13 python2.5
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2268568 2009-04-18 22:53 python2.6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 2009-06-12 14:59 pyversions -> ../share/python/pyversions.py
{code}

Note that python is linked to python2.6.
If I want to change the version that is associated with python I would simply remove the current python link:
{code}
rm /usr/bin/python
{code}

And add a new link:
{code}
ln -s /usr/bin/python2.5 /usr/bin/python
{code}

This way when "python" is issued by a user or app it will pickup version 2.5.

HTH

[sphyg04]

I get this message.

cache901:
Depends: python-xml but it is not installable
Depends: python-gpsbabel but it is not going to be installed
Depends: python (<2.6) but 2.6.4-0ubuntu1 is to be installed

How do I fix it.. Please be specific because I am a noob. Thanks

[devil404]

Following the other user's instructions won't make cache901 install from packages. Luckily, I got it to work by building it from source. Here's what I did:

Start by linking python to the python2.6 binary like jkysam showed.

Then grab python-gpsbabel
wget http://www.cache901.org/downloads/python-gpsbabel-0.9.0.tar.gz

...and extract it...

tar -zxvf python-gpsbabel-0.9.0.tar.gz

...jump into that directory...

cd python-gpsbabel-0.9.0

...and install python-gpsbabel

sudo python setup.py install

There's the prerequisite that wouldn't install because of some messed up dependencies. Now for the bread and butter. Since it's a lot like the previous installation, I'll rush things along a bit:

cd ..
wget http://www.cache901.org/downloads/cache901-0.6.1.tar.gz
tar -zxvf cache901-0.6.1.tar.gz
cd cache901*
sudo python setup.py install

And there ya go. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but at least we can keep track of our geocaches natively in Linux.