Zenmap (RPM package) fails on some Linux distros due to overly-specific Python version specification

[jeffclay]

Describe the bug
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/zenmap", line 5, in
from zenmapGUI.App import run
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'zenmapGUI'

To Reproduce
Download the RPM from https://nmap.org/dist/zenmap-7.98-1.noarch.rpm
Install RPM
Execute zenmap from CLI

Expected behavior
Zenmap should run

Version info (please complete the following information):

• OS: Fedora release 42
• Zenmap version: 7.98-1
• Output of nmap --version:
• Nmap version 7.92 ( https://nmap.org )
  Platform: x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu
  Compiled with: nmap-liblua-5.3.5 openssl-3.2.4 libssh2-1.11.1 libz-1.3.1.zlib-ng libpcre2-10.45 libpcap-1.10.5 nmap-libdnet-1.12 ipv6
  Compiled without:
  Available nsock engines: epoll poll select

Additional context
This issue has been occurring for several years. It would be great if it were finally fixed.

[jeffclay]

The issue seems to be due to the system defaulting to python3.13 and the zenmap package uses python 3.11.

Updating the file /usr/bin/zenmap to the contents below resolves all errors and launches zenmap.

#!/usr/bin/python3.13
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import re
import sys

# Define the path to the site-packages directory for Python 3.11
path_to_add = '/usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages'

# Add the path to the beginning of the list of paths Python searches
if path_to_add not in sys.path:
    sys.path.insert(0, path_to_add)

from zenmapGUI.App import run
if __name__ == '__main__':
    sys.argv[0] = re.sub(r'(-script\.pyw|\.exe)?$', '', sys.argv[0])
    sys.exit(run())

If you manually specify /usr/bin/python3.11, you don't have to update the path but there are additional import errors due to unsatisfied dependencies.

[Cwavs]

fyi, on Fedora 43 you now need to adjust the first line to point to python 3.14 rather than 3.13. Any chance we could get a more upstream fix for this? Seen as Fedora still doesn't build Zenmap anymore, these rpm packages the only real way to get zenmap installed properly without using flatpak!

[xaxuthekid]

It works fine on OpenSuse Leap 16 update !!!

[Cwavs]

This makes sense as it seems that's using 3.13 rather than 3.14 like Fedora 43

[dmiller-nmap]

The RPM package format doesn't allow us to target different Python versions because Python modules are installed in version-specific directories. The workaround above works because Zenmap itself is pure-Python and written to an older standard (roughly Python 3.8) so it can be included directly, but it would cause problems if the system has other modules like PyGobject installed in the 3.11 site-modules directory and is invoking the zenmap program with Python 3.13, for instance.

The solution I've decided on is this: we will explicitly declare the Python version for which the RPM is built so that it will only correctly install if that version is present. As an alternative for other Python versions, we will consider distributing a (version-independent) universal wheel package that can be installed directly with pip. The current workaround is to install Zenmap directly from source using the following commands:

cd zenmap/
cp ../ndiff/ndiff.py .
pip install .

[fyodor]

We fixed this in Nmap/Zenmap 7.99 by distributing the Python wheel package directly instead of putting Zenmap in an ill-fitting RPM.