Cygwin build problem: python version

GNU Radio
1

By way of introduction, I’m a new GnuRadio user, looking to have a play
with it. I don’t have access to a Linux system, so I’m going with
Cygwin.

The cygwin build instructions
(http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/CygwinInstallMain) say that python 2.4 is
required. However, the cygwin mirrors don’t carry python 2.4 any more.
(The current and previous versions are two 2.5 flavours.)

The only way I could manage to install all the other packages I needed,
without getting in a horrible mess (with both version 2.4 and version
2.5 installed, with different packages using different versions) was to
download an old python 2.4, hack a cygwin release.ini to force it into
believing that I’d installed python, and keep putting the python action
back to “keep” whenever it wanted to upgrade to a 2.5 version.

A few questions came out of this.

  1. Does anybody know if python 2.4 still required, or does it work with
    2.5 now? The reason given in http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/WindowsTips
    is “the Numeric package assumes that Python 2.4 is used, and wxPython
    has unresolved build problems with Python 2.5; until fixed, use python
    2.4.3-1 instead”. I don’t understand this well enough to know if the
    restriction should still be in place.

  2. Assuming python 2.4 is still required, is there an easier method than
    what I describe above to install version 2.4 and prevent cygwin
    installing 2.5 as well?

  3. Whatever the answers to the above questions, how do I get an account
    to update the wiki with improved instructions?

Andrew

2

Hi Andrew,

----- Original Message -----
From: “Andrew R.” [email protected]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 11:41 AM

By way of introduction, I’m a new GnuRadio user, looking to have a play
with it. I don’t have access to a Linux system, so I’m going with
Cygwin.

The cygwin build instructions
(http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/CygwinInstallMain) say that python 2.4 is
required. However, the cygwin mirrors don’t carry python 2.4 any more.
(The current and previous versions are two 2.5 flavours.)

That’s definitely a problem!

2.5 now? The reason given in http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/WindowsTips
is “the Numeric package assumes that Python 2.4 is used, and wxPython
has unresolved build problems with Python 2.5; until fixed, use python
2.4.3-1 instead”. I don’t understand this well enough to know if the
restriction should still be in place.

I tried using python 2.5 back in March (2007) and had the problems
listed
above. As far as I know, GNU Radio 3.0.4 still needs Numeric but there
is
still no Numeric for Python 2.5. In the future, GNU Radio will need
numpy
instead of Numeric, so this will cease to be a problem. I don’t recall
what
the problem was with wxWidgets and Python 2.5, but I will look into it.

Can someone who knows say which versions of GNU Radio currently or will
in
the future require Numeric (as opposed to numpy)?

Are there any knows issues with GNU Radio and Python 2.5 on non-Windows
platforms?

  1. Assuming python 2.4 is still required, is there an easier method than
    what I describe above to install version 2.4 and prevent cygwin
    installing 2.5 as well?

I think you are doing very well to have made it work. Obviously we need
to
make it work with Python 2.5, though.

I have been waiting for GNU Radio 3.1 to update the build instructions,
but
it looks like that might not be soon enough. I will look into
Python/wxPython/Numeric/numpy issues and see what can be done.

– Don W.

3

On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 01:11:52PM -0400, Don W. wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Can someone who knows say which versions of GNU Radio currently or will in
the future require Numeric (as opposed to numpy)?

Numeric has not been supported in the trunk for a couple of months.
numpy is the replacement for Numeric. The 3.1 release will require
numpy.

Are there any knows issues with GNU Radio and Python 2.5 on non-Windows
platforms?

No serious issues that I’m aware of.

Eric