pip & pip3 issue with work-around

[ikeman32]

Someone within the python community in their infinite wisdom decided to change how python packages are installed. I am not sure if this is unique to Linux distros or what. A simple pip install or pip3 install will no longer work.

I use Linux Mint Cinnamon and this is the response I get:

 This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.
    
    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.
    
    If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
    it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
    virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
    
    See /usr/share/doc/python3.12/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

I have checked this in Arch and Kali with the same results. See PEP 668: https://peps.python.org/pep-0668/

PEP 668 provides several ways to work around this but the simplest is to use: --break-system-packages like so:
pip install --break-system-packages or pip3 install --break-system-packages

Given the events around the forking of pygame to pygam-ce I know for certain that Linux Mint repositories do not have pygame-ce but they do have pygame. This is likely the same for Arch based distros as well.

It saddens me that such toxicity within the dev community exists. But I recommend that this work around is incorporated in the install instructions for Linux users.

[oddbookworm]

This is indeed a Linux-only issue. Never encourage the use of --break-system-packages. It's named that way for a reason. One should only ever use that command if they both know what they're doing and have a very good reason. The proper solution for packages that don't provide package manager versions is to use a virtual environment. And this wasn't python's decision, this was a decision made by Linux distribution maintainers to keep people from accidentally screwing up the Python installation that the distro relies on.

On that note, we have talked about providing releases to package managers, but it's not a simple task to do. We may eventually do it for some package managers, but it's not in our immediate plan. However, if some 3rd party would like to help with that, please let us know!

[ikeman32]

Never encourage the use of --break-system-packages. It's named that way for a reason.

Be that as it may. It is currently the only way that I have found to install pygame-ce as it is not offered in my distro repository. Besides which I never install packages system wide, I learned my lesson on that when I did break my system a few years ago. I will look into packaging perhaps flatpak and see. Perhaps I am just to old and set in my ways, as I find this issue a gross violation of trust by those responsible for it. Not you guys of course.

[joereynolds]

It is very annoying but you can circumvent 99% of the pain by using uv.

Simply add pygame-ce as a dependency in pyproject.toml

    "pygame-ce >=2.5.5",

And then run your game with uv run your_entrypoint.py.
uv will construct the venv for you and not clutter your packages :)

[oddbookworm]

Like I said, the best option for now is to encourage the use of virtual environments over global installs. You can even use one of a plethora of tools to avoid using your global Python entirely, such as pyenv.

[ankith26]

I have opened a PR updating the README, I have added mentions of venv, pyenv, and uv there. Let me know if there's anything else worth mentioning that I may have missed.

[yolowex]

I find this issue a gross violation of trust by those responsible for it

Just use virtual environments, you are already able to install packages globally & in the virtual environments. Those who are responsible for it are only recommending you to not install python packages globally, as they can easily interfere with the inner workings of the distro, you still have full control of your OS.