install Python-2.4.4 from source (parallel to existing Python-2.6)

[Simon]

Simon wrote:
> edexter wrote:
>> simon wrote:
>>> Hi everybody,
>>>
>>> The situation:
>>> I wrote a GUI, based on Python, TkInter and Pmw.
>>> It runs perfectly fine with Python 2.4 (providing, TkInter and Pmw are
>>> installed). But it crashes with Python 2.6. I tried this on MacOSX11.4
>>> and various Linux Distributions.
>>> Crashes occurs when I activate a Pmw.Diaog (I guess this is due to a bug
>>> in the installed blt package), also when I use setitems on
>>> Pmw.OptionMenu (I guess this is due to another package, associated with
>>> tcl/tk).
>>>
>>> The target:
>>> I have to get my GUI work under openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64).
>>>
>>> My plan:
>>> On my openSUSE 11.1 (x86_64), Python 2.6 is installed by default.
>>> I would like to know, how to install Python 2.4 along with TkInter and
>>> Pmw (and packages that are required by them), parallel to the existing
>>> Python 2.6. So that I do not break other software that depends on Python
>>> 2.6.
>>>
>>> If you can think of another plan, I would be also glad to discuss it.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Simon
>>
>> I suspect you want to install python 2.4 and then reinstall 2.6  I did
>> that in windows and I don't understand why it wouldn't work in linux
> 
> I'm afraid, installation is quit different under UNIX based systems and 
> Windows.
> 
> I installed Python-2.4.4.tar.bz2 from python.org, using gcc-4.3 (within 
> openSUSE 11.1 x86_64) via 'make altinstall'.
> 
> First, I tried to configure with the following flags: 
> --prefix=/opt/python-24 --enable-framework --with-pydebug
> This provoked an error during compilation via make (sorry, the list was 
> so long, but I will post it, if it helps).
> 
> Second, configured again without any flags. The installation by 'make 
> altinstall' to /usr/local was a success. Python2.6 seams unaffected, 
> too. So, I got my parallel installation.
> 
> However, I cannot import modules like Tkinter or readline within python2.4.
> 
> For example, Tkinter.py is located in /usr/local/lib/python2.4/lib-tk
> 
> sys.path says: ['', '/usr/local/lib/python24.zip', 
> '/usr/local/lib/python2.4', '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/plat-linux2', 
> '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/lib-tk', 
> '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload', 
> '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages']
> 
> sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix say: '/usr/local'
> 
> my bash's PATH variable says: 
> /sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/root/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/lib64/jvm/jre/bin:/usr/lib/mit/bin:/usr/lib/mit/sbin 
> 
> 
> Which configuration step did I miss after my Python2.4 installation? 
> What did I do wrong?
> 
> Cheers,
> Simon

OK, I found an 'Ansatzpunkt' where I can start from:
_tkinter.so is missing in /usr/local/lib/python2.4/lib-dynload
so I guess my python is not configured for using Tcl?

I found the following from 
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2001-December/117984.html

Install Tcl, Tk and Python as peers of each other ...
1. run configure in Python
2. make and make install Tcl  (unless you're using binary dist)make and
3. make install Tk   (unless you're using binary dist)
4. edit Setup
5. make and make install Python

I guess, I will try that next. Maybe somebody knows a more detailed 
instruction. My problems:

a)
I don't know if I have to set special flags to make the three packages 
aware of each other during 'configure', 'make', and 'make altinstall'.

b)
Also, I don't know, which setup do I have to edit during step 4.

c)
Which Tcl and Tk versions do I need, don't I need tcl-devel in addition?

Sorry for so many questions, but this stuff is new for me,
Simon