Re: [Matplotlib-users] can't import pylab

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Joe" == Joe Jones <jo...@th...> writes:

    Joe> As this problem looks font related I should mention that
    Joe> there are two versions of freetype2 on my system (Suse
    Joe> 9.0). one in /usr/lib that came with my system, and one in
    Joe> /usr/local that I installed myself. I unistalled the
    Joe> headerfiles and static libs of the one which came with the
    Joe> system. The run time linker is finding the new one, so
    Joe> matplot is compiling and linking against the same version.

Hey Joe, thanks for the detailed info.  These kinds of bugs are very
hard to track down since I can't replicate them.  A few suggestions.
rm -rf your "build" sub-directory *and* site-packages/matplotlib and
get a clean install to make sure there is no lingering old code
linking to the old freetype.  Make sure you have a pretty recent
freetype (eg >= 2.1.7).  What version *are* you using?

Once you get matplotlib reinstalled, see if you can replicate the bug.
If not, good.  If so, send an ldd of
site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so, and see if you can reproduce the
problem with a minimal script, eg

  from matplotlib.ft2font import FT2Font
  font = FT2Font('/your/path/to/Vera.ttf')
  font.set_size(40, 150)
  font.set_text('finish it', 40)
  font.draw_glyphs_to_bitmap()
  fname = 'font.raw'
  font.write_bitmap(fname)

This will take out a lot of the unknowns.  The FT2Font constructor
does call the FT_Get_Postscript_Name function, which appears to be
involved according to your gdb session.

Thanks,
JDH