FR: eXe should be a python3 application

[jrfern]

Some day, near 2020, python3 will be the only python available (or the old python, and python4 the development version). We should be ready for that day. This has two aspects:

• Are the libraries we use ready for python3?
• Is our code ready?
  I keep a page and I try to be uptodate
  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P-gru4tePvEvpVzTaDOzxYV9wIiwQqDPdtWSUsRXfFM/edit#

[jrfern]

From the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release notes:

Python 2 is no longer installed by default. Python 3 has been updated to 3.6. This is the last LTS release to include Python 2 in main.

The clock won't stop.

[jrfern]

What's the present situation of this issue?

[jrfern]

Well, I will answer my own question: eXe is no longer installable in the developing Debian derivatives (Testing, Unstable). It depends on libraries that are only present in the python3 version (today python-css, python-suds - the number goes up daily). Not that you can choose, the packages are no longer present, unless you are an expert and mix Stable and Testing, for example. This is no longer a FR, but a very serious bug. Therefore I change the label form FR to P1.

[jrfern]

@ignaciogros, should I pin this issue?

[ignaciogros]

OK. That's the number one priority. We're studying different possibilities. I won't treat this as a bug, but we have to do that. It's rewriting (some parts, even from scratch). I leave it unassigned for the moment.

[uliska]

I just came across this while investigating Free alternatives to the commercial closed-source elearning applications for my music university, and it's a pity that I can't install it to give it a try on my Debian testing machine.

[ignaciogros]

I just came across this while investigating Free alternatives to the commercial closed-source elearning applications for my music university, and it's a pity that I can't install it to give it a try on my Debian testing machine.

I didn't try this, but we sent this to another user and it worked for him. I know it's not the perfect solution. It's just something to do until we solve this issue.

Debian testing has Python 2, so:

1.- Install PIP:
apt-get install python-pip

2.- Check dependencies:
dpkg-deb -I intef-exe_2.5_all.deb

3.- Install the unresolved dependencies with PIP:
python -m pip install beautifulsoup4 cssmin feedparser lxml requests-oauthlib rjsmin suds webassets zope-interface dateutils Pillow

4.- Install the package ignoring the dependencies:
dpkg -i --ignore-depends=python-zopeinterface,python-pil,python-chardet,python-lxml,python-bs4,python-suds,python-requests-oauthlib,python-dateutil,python-cssmin,python-webassets,python-feedparser,mimetex intef-exe_2.5_all.deb

5.- Launch eXe from the command line:
exe

[uliska]

Thank you. I tried it, and right now I could at least start the application, which launched in the browser (which I assume is correct). I'll definitely give the tool a closer look.

One comment (for the record, if someone else with the problem sees this): in 4. I had (of course) to use sudo.

I'm OK with using such a workaround as long as the availability of workarounds is not detrimental to working on the issue. I can relate to that because I know the problem from involvement in another Open Source program.

[uliska]

I must partially revoke my previous endorsement. It seems that this approach subsequently prevents the apt installation of any package that depends on any of the ignored Python packages, even if the package would actually use the Python3 versions. In order to install anything else I had to remove eXe through the invocation of sudo apt --fix-broken install, as suggested by apt.

[EDIT:]
Thinking the suggested approach was somehow permanently confusing apt's dependency handling with these packages I looked for another way to accomplish the task and found an alternative approach. This seems to have worked, I can now open eXe and install other software through apt. But I would say this is a pretty risky thing that everybody would do at their own risk. Basically I removed the dependency declarations from the .deb file itself, according to https://serverfault.com/a/383958/435996, which I modified to match the resulting filenames.

This is what I did:

0. Download the "Debian/Ubuntu" package file from https://exelearning.net/en/descargas/

1. Install PIP (optional, may well be present already):
   sudo apt install python-pip

2. Check dependencies:
   dpkg-deb -I intef-exe_2.5_all.deb

3. Install the unresolved dependencies with PIP:
   python -m pip install beautifulsoup4 cssmin feedparser lxml requests-oauthlib rjsmin suds webassets zope-interface dateutils Pillow

4. (within the download directory of the .deb file, extract the package file:
   ar x intef-exe_2.5_all.deb

5. Unpack control archive:
   tar xzf control.tar.gz
   creates: postinst preinst prerm md5sums control

6. open the file control and manually remove the dependencies installed before

7. Repack the control.tar.gz archive:
   tar --ignore-failed-read -cvzf control.tar.gz postinst preinst prerm md5sums control

8. Repackage the .deb file (new name):
   ar rcs newpackage.deb debian-binary control.tar.gz data.tar.xz

9. Install eXe:
   sudo dpkg -i newpackage.deb

10. Launch eXe from the command line:
    exe

[ignaciogros]

Thanks for sharing that information, Urs. I hope that we'll find a solution for this soon.

[glixx]

Python 2 is EOL and was dropped from Mageia Linux with eXe. Needs to release python 3 eXe as soon as possible.

[dmsoler]

Just added a pull request #423 to pkg2appimage. If it is accepted, generation of an AppImage of intef-exe will be an easy and straightforward task.

[ignaciogros]

Just added a pull request #423 to pkg2appimage. If it is accepted, generation of an AppImage of intef-exe will be an easy and straightforward task.

Thank you, @dmsoler!

[dmsoler]

Pull request #423 to pkg2appimage was merged.

You can generate an AppImage of intef-exe simply by cloning pkg2appimage repository with 'git clone https://github.com/AppImage/pkg2appimage.git' and running:

./pkg2appimage/pkg2appimage intef-exe

Note that the recipe included in pkg2appimage uses Debian oldstable packages to increase compatibility (see this commit ).

[cyberorg]

kolibri uses some python2 in mostly python3 app, this is how they handle it by including them in the package dist folder:

pip2 install -t kolibri/dist -r "requirements.txt"
rm -rf kolibri/dist/*.dist-info  # pip installs from PyPI will complain if we have more than one dist-info directory.
rm -rf kolibri/dist/*.egg-info
rm -r kolibri/dist/man kolibri/dist/bin || true # remove the two folders introduced by pip 10
python2 build_tools/py2only.py # move `future` and `futures` packages to `kolibri/dist/py2only`

https://github.com/learningequality/kolibri/blob/develop/build_tools/py2only.py

For Ubuntu 20.04 I've hacked together additional package with python2 deps as an experiment which works fine.
https://launchpad.net/~jigish-gohil/+archive/ubuntu/education

[ignaciogros]

Thank you, @cyberorg!
We use SNAP for the moment. I hope that we can upgrade or renew the code so there are no more compatibility problems.

[ignaciogros]

There will be a new eXe which will solve all this. There's no date yet. Thank you for your ideas and contributions!

[neurofreak-alt]

Some day, near 2020, python3 will be the only python available (or the old python, and python4 the development version). We should be ready for that day. This has two aspects:

* Are the libraries we use ready for python3?

* Is our code ready?
  I keep a page and I try to be uptodate
  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P-gru4tePvEvpVzTaDOzxYV9wIiwQqDPdtWSUsRXfFM/edit#

twisted now compatible with python3. Information should be updated.