[Visualpython-users] vpython on ubuntu

[Guenter S. <Gue...@ph...>]

I have struggled to get vpython fully working on ubuntu for a while now. 
Here is my summary what I learned. Let me say right away, as far as I 
can tell it's not a vpython problem.

First, unlike others on this list, I have no problems compiling vpython 
5.12. It works using debian Lenny on any computer I have tried. By
'it works' I mean these simple tests do not result in seg. faults:

TEST 1:
 >>> from visual import *
 >>> v = vector('x')
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: Vectors must be constructed from sequences of 2 or 3 float 
members.
 >>>

TEST 2:
 >>> from visual import *
 >>> v=vector(1,2,3)
 >>> for i in v:
...     print i
...
1.0
2.0
3.0
 >>>

On ubuntu 9.04 it works on some computers but not on others. It doesn't 
matter if I use 32 bit or 64 bit ubuntu 9.04.

In fact the same pattern holds true in my tests for the python-visual 
package that is distributed with ubuntu 9.04 (which is vpython 3.2.9). 
It fails on all computers if a proprietary graphics driver is not 
installed. Activating an nvidia proprietary graphics driver results in a 
working vpython (as defined above), on system with ati graphics cards I 
was not so lucky. I tried 6 different computers, 2 with nvidia graphics 
and 4 with ati graphics.

I got the same result for ubuntu 8.10. It always works with ubuntu 8.04.3.

I filed a bug report with ubuntu against vpython since I have no idea 
what is causing this problem.

I could not try python-visual on karmic alpha (which 5.11) since that 
leads to a seg fault like this

 >>> from visual import *
Segmentation fault

There is already a bug report for this.

Guenter