Thread: Tutorial for installing pycar on Linux

Originally Posted by kbyrd

Ok, so the documentation for getting Pycar running on Linux system sucks.
Since just *****ing helps very little, I thought I'd document what I had to do. I hope others add/correct it, because I know my worklog is very debian specific. For things like packages it would be nice to see something like:

Ok. I got the point
Actually I was waiting for someone who can document the whole process like you
Here is the sequence in short:
1. Install pymedia: http://indashpc.org/vbullettin/viewtopic.php?t=31
2. Get pygame-1.6 from sources and update it with the patch: http://66.159.221.186/pygame-1.6-overlay.patch.gz
3. Get pyrxp: http://www.reportlab.org/pyrxp.html
4. Get the pycar from sources and just run: "python pycar.py ."

Originally Posted by kbyrd

I have little/no framebuffer experience, so I'm no surprised I ran into trouble here. I'll finish this when I get a chance. Any help is appreciated. Here's a crazy question to display my ignorance of directfb. Does a directfb app run under X? I thought it was framebuffer or X, not an app in an X session using the framebuffer.

Directfb delivers small footprint and HW accelerated graphics. If you prefer to use X that's fine, do not define export PyCAR_DISPLAY=directfb; and it will use pygame by default.
Basically you can run XDirectfb just fine and will run some X apps, but in general it won't be fully X compatible...
PyCar can use either of those it can run in a window if you use pygame. When directfb is concerned it will run in fullscreen...

I went over to try and run headunit for a day. That went pretty smooth. jbors PM'd me offering help, that was nice of him, so I thought I would try harder to get pycar working. I'll edit my first post with instructions when I'm done, in the meantime I'll post the bits as I do them:

- I decided against my "no patch pygame" policy. So I went backed out of the framebuffer idea, uninstalled debian's pygame package and went and got the source. I ened up with pygame-1.6.2 instead of 1.6, maybe that will bite me. The patch didn't apply cleanly, in fact I don't think it applied at all. What I mean is I think those changes are in the source for pygame-1.6.2 already. That would be good news, jbors, maybe the pygame people accepted your patch?

- compiling pygame complains about several libs so I went and installed lib-sdlttf-dev and such. pygame compiled and installed.

- When to run "python pycar.py", ARRGH! Another error. No such file or directory: 'skins/pycar.cfg'.
After some investigation and re-downloading pycar-1.2.3.0-pre2-src.tar.gz I discovered that the tar package HAS NO SKINS!!!! Are you kidding me? The package isn't even complete.

- I download the zip file 1.2.3.0-pre2.zip file, unzip it and copy it's skins directory to my pycar directory.

- Now I'm getting some locale problem. My LANG environment variable was set to en_US, I got this:

Code:

headunit:~/pycar-1.2.3-pre2-src# python pycar.py
open /dev/sequencer: No such file or directory
Looking for translation file for language: ['en_US', 'en_gb']
!!!No translation file for en_US, see README file for more information
Falling back to english...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "pycar.py", line 246, in ?
    mainTest( s )
  File "pycar.py", line 133, in mainTest
    locale.setlocale( locale.LC_ALL, 'us' )
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/locale.py", line 381, in setlocale
    return _setlocale(category, locale)
locale.Error: unsupported locale setting
Background tasker started
Background tasker stopped

Any help would be appreciated.

Try this:

Code:

python pycar.py .

It is covered in README file.
Now some clarifications:
1. Pygame did accept patch but release 1.7 has been pushed back due to maintainers problems.
2. Pycar package is complete. Pycar is not an application, it is a framework for building your own application. It has no logic whatsoever inside. Skin is a set of even handlers that makes the application.

Again, thanks to jbors. This is a long post. But I think it's useful. Please understand that I'm not just bashing jbors and his work. I really like pycar, I just think that the Linux distribution for this app isn't enough.

I left off with "python pycar.py" giving me locale errors. jbors suggested "python pycar.py ." This worked!

Let me respond to jbor's comments:
- About pygame. It may be the pygame 1.6.2 (which is not available) has your patch in it. It didn't apply cleanly (obviously not your fault since you said to use 1.6), and it looks like the code changes from the patch file are already in (I didn't verify the big binary blob).

- About "python pycar.py ." and being covered in the README file. Which README file? At first, I skipped over most of the pycar/README file since it's clearly written for Windows users. I went back after I had trouble and actually read it (I know, I always read the instructions AFTER I have problems), I cannot find a single reference to running pycar on anything but Windows. There is nothing in there to indicate I need to add the current directory to the cmdline as you suggested. So, I went looking for a README in pymedia, there is none. It's not covered in the README file, but it should be.

- About missing skins. What do you mean "pycar is not an application"? Of course it is! When I tried the Windows .zip package I unzipped it, read the README, ran the application and it ran! I really liked the UI, I wanted to try it on Linux. I figured it would be the same since your website says: "No modifications or recompilation needed to run PyCar on Linux vs Windows or vise versa". So, I went and grabbed the tar.gz file untar'd it and eventually discovered that the skins directory is empty. I understand that people can create their own skins, you made a skinable application. That's one of the many things I like about it. But, lets say I've never used the Windows version, I see pycar listed as a Linux front end on these forums, and I think "Great!", I go download the tar package only to find I have to make a skin before I can even run the app for the first time? How do I know what the skin is supposed to look like? It's pretty standard to include a default skin in a skinable app, either compiled in or just part of the skins directory, just like you do for the Windows distrobution.


So, to finish this off, nice work. I like the app. It's clearly a work in progress, but that's not a surprise, you have said that. My installation was hard. Much of that was my fault, I had to install the *-dev packages (for many packages debian installs just the libs, you have to get libsdl-dev to get the headers to compile against). However, I cannot see how I would have soved the last two issues using just the Linux tar package provided:

- I needed to copy skins dir from windows zip file. Why is the skins directory empty?

- Having to add the current dir to the cmdline to run pycar "pthon pycar.py .", that is not documented anywhere that I can tell.

In any case, the whole point is to make the software better, right? So, I'll begin editing my first post to give a more complete set of instructions for others.

How do we make this a sticky?

Thanks for stepping in. Great HOWTO !

kbyrd, can I use this how to on my forum ? Or if you can post it in the software section I will really appreciate it.
http://indashpc.org/vbullettin/viewforum.php?f=4

Originally Posted by jbors

kbyrd, can I use this how to on my forum ? Or if you can post it in the software section I will really appreciate it.
http://indashpc.org/vbullettin/viewforum.php?f=4

Sure, please use this however you want, in your distributions, on your forums, whatever.