Unable to Install Package in Virtual Environment on Mac OS

[scottfurry]

Platform: Mac Mini (Late 2018) - 3.2 GHz 6-core Intel i7
OS: Sequoia 15.7.1

From a terminal window at prompt:

• installed python/tcl-tk/python-tk via homebrew as per https://tkdocs.com/tutorial/install.html

• verify python (homebrew installed)

$ python3 --version
python-3.14.0

• verify tcl-tk & python-tk (homebrew installed)

$ python3 -m tkinter

observed and interacted w/ "click me" dialog

• create virtual environment

$ python3 -m venv ~/[venv_path]

• activate venv

$ . ~/[venv_path]/bin/activate

• verify tcl-tk & python-tk in virtual environment

(venv) % python3 -m tkinter

observed and interacted w/ "click me" dialog

• install dependencies for other development

(venv) % pip3 install --no-binary=Pillow Pillow attrs configobj py2app pycotap pygame pysol-cards setuptools accessible-output2

• finally, attempt install of ttkthemes

(venv) % pip3 install ttkthemes

resultant message output with error indication

Collecting ttkthemes
  Downloading ttkthemes-3.2.2.tar.gz (891 kB)
     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 891.2/891.2 kB 7.9 MB/s  0:00:00
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [26 lines of output]
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/Users/[username]/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 389, in <modu
          main()
          ~~~~^^
        File "/Users/[username]/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/Users/[username]/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 143, in get_r
          return hook(config_settings)
        File "/private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-build-env-1jm7olrs/overlay/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptool
          return self._get_build_requires(config_settings, requirements=[])
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-build-env-1jm7olrs/overlay/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptool
          self.run_setup()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "/private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-build-env-1jm7olrs/overlay/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptool
          super().run_setup(setup_script=setup_script)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-build-env-1jm7olrs/overlay/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptool
          exec(code, locals())
          ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "<string>", line 7, in <module>
        File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.14/3.14.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/tkinter/__init__.py", line 38, i
          import _tkinter # If this fails your Python may not be configured for Tk
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_tkinter'
      [end of output]
  
  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× Getting requirements to build wheel did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> See above for output.

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.

• observed install problem also occurs when using

python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/RedFantom/ttkthemes

as described in ttkthemes docs

Need help sorting out cause of failure and/or correct steps for correct package install.

Numerous sources online suggest that pip should just work. Search for probable cause leads to information not applicable to circumstances, nor address observations directly. Rabbit Holes everywhere.

Suspect some specific path, or environment setting, needs to be tweaked because of homebrew usage.

[Akuli]

Try python3 -m pip install ttkthemes instead of pip3 install ttkthemes. The pip3 command is probably choosing a different Python than python3, since tkinter does work with python3.

[scottfurry]

Doesn't help. Both

python3 -m pip install ...
~and~
pip3 install ...

produce the same results.

[Akuli]

Very weird.

To be clear, which of these work with the venv activated, and which don't?

python3 -m tkinter
python3 -c 'import _tkinter; print(_tkinter)'
python3 -m pip install ttkthemes

[scottfurry]

Very weird.

To be clear, which of these work with the venv activated, and which don't?

python3 -m tkinter
python3 -c 'import _tkinter; print(_tkinter)'
python3 -m pip install ttkthemes

Line 1 - works perfectly
Line 2 - also produces good output

<module '_tkinter' from '/usr/local/opt/python-tk@3.14/libexec/_tkinter.cpython-314-darwin.so'>

Line 3 - brick wall - same error indication as noted in first post above.

[Akuli]

Seems like from tkinter import TkVersion (line 7) in ttkthemes setup.py is not working. When pip runs setup.py, it somehow runs in an environment where it cannot import from the usual places. I did not know this was possible. This may be a new thing.

The correct fix is to not check tkinter version in setup.py. @RedFantom or @rdbende, can do you do that and release the fix?

While this is not fixed, you can try PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/opt/python-tk@3.14/libexec" python3 -m pip install ttkthemes for now. It is a total hack, but might work. (You could also use another ttk theme library, but I see that you're working on the mac build of pysolfc and not a small personal project, so that's probably not an option.)

[scottfurry]

Seems like from tkinter import TkVersion (line 7) in ttkthemes setup.py is not working. When pip runs setup.py, it somehow runs in an environment where it cannot import from the usual places. I did not know this was possible. This may be a new thing.

I saw references to case of import being relevant when digging to documentation.

While this is not fixed, you can try PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/opt/python-tk@3.14/libexec" python3 -m pip install ttkthemes for now. It is a total hack, but might work. (You could also use another ttk theme library, but I see that you're working on the mac build of pysolfc and not a small personal project, so that's probably not an option.)

Given statement in virtual environment does not work. Same error reported as above.

I found some references online to order of install for python, tcl-tk, and python-tk had some impact. I attempted those steps without success.

Should be noted, the last error message printed...

 File "<string>", line 7, in <module>
        File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.14/3.14.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/tkinter/__init__.py", line 38, in <module>

suggests setuptools is accessing tkinter initialization but fails. Upstream packaging makes a point of splitting tkinter out of main python package (multiple Linuxes, homebrew, et al). Could issue be a symptom of this split?

[Akuli]

I don't think this has much to do with distributing tkinter. The problem is that the parts written in C (_tkinter) are not importable, because the folder where they are does not end up in sys.path when pip executes setup.py.

I replicated your problem locally by breaking (renaming) my _tkinter module temporarily and figured out a really ugly and hacky solution. Try placing the following into a new file venv/lib/python3.14/_tkinter.py. Does that help?

print("Using the dummy file!")
TclError = Exception
TCL_VERSION = TK_VERSION = "8.6"
READABLE = WRITABLE = EXCEPTION = 0

For tkinter to actually work, you will probably need to delete this dummy _tkinter.py.

[Akuli]

Sorry, the correct place is venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/_tkinter.py, not venv/lib/python3.14/_tkinter.py.

[rdbende]

The correct fix is to not check tkinter version in setup.py. @RedFantom or @rdbende, can do you do that and release the fix?

I'll do that, but I can't publish it to Pypi unfortunately. Although I received an invitation from @RedFantom to the Pypi project, the link expired before I could get a chance to open it.

Anyway, I think the issue here is pip's build isolation feature not giving access to locally installed packages. @scottfurry does the following work: python3 -m pip install ttkthemes --no-build-isolation? No idea though, why this hasn't been a problem in the past.

[rdbende]

Now I'm wondering how this package works at all nowadays and why we haven't got issues complaining, that it doesn't. I can't even initialize a ThemedTk, because the package require Tk 8.6 on top of any Tcl file fails if you have Tk 9.0 or above. Guess that needs updating as well 😞

[scottfurry]

python3 -m pip install ttkthemes --no-build-isolation

Command fails with the following:

Collecting ttkthemes
  Using cached ttkthemes-3.2.2.tar.gz (891 kB)
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [71 lines of output]
      /[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/py2app/__init__.py:30: UserWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API. See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html. The pkg_resources package is slated for removal as early as 2025-11-30. Refrain from using this package or pin to Setuptools<81.
        import pkg_resources
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/py2app/build_app.py", line 10, in <module>
          import imp
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imp'
      
      During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
      
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/modulegraph/_imp.py", line 2, in <module>
          from imp import (
          ...<9 lines>...
          )
      ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'imp'
      
      During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
      
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 389, in <module>
          main()
          ~~~~^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pip/_vendor/pyproject_hooks/_in_process/_in_process.py", line 175, in prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel
          return hook(metadata_directory, config_settings)
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 374, in prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel
          self.run_setup()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 512, in run_setup
          super().run_setup(setup_script=setup_script)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/build_meta.py", line 317, in run_setup
          exec(code, locals())
          ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "<string>", line 20, in <module>
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 115, in setup
          return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/core.py", line 148, in setup
          _setup_distribution = dist = klass(attrs)
                                       ~~~~~^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 321, in __init__
          _Distribution.__init__(self, dist_attrs)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/_distutils/dist.py", line 309, in __init__
          self.finalize_options()
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 783, in finalize_options
          for ep in sorted(loaded, key=by_order):
                    ~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/setuptools/dist.py", line 782, in <lambda>
          loaded = map(lambda e: e.load(), filtered)
                                 ~~~~~~^^
        File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.14/3.14.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/importlib/metadata/__init__.py", line 179, in load
          module = import_module(match.group('module'))
        File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.14/3.14.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/importlib/__init__.py", line 88, in import_module
          return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1398, in _gcd_import
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1371, in _find_and_load
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1342, in _find_and_load_unlocked
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 938, in _load_unlocked
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 762, in exec_module
        File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 491, in _call_with_frames_removed
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/py2app/build_app.py", line 12, in <module>
          from modulegraph import _imp as imp
        File "/[venv_path]/lib/python3.14/site-packages/modulegraph/_imp.py", line 28, in <module>
          from importlib._bootstrap import _ERR_MSG
      ImportError: cannot import name '_ERR_MSG' from 'importlib._bootstrap' (/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.14/3.14.0/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.14/lib/python3.14/importlib/_bootstrap.py)
      [end of output]
  
  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.

No idea though, why this hasn't been a problem in the past.

Blame pep-668

[rdbende]

Ouch, that looks even weirder.

Anyway, I made the changes @Akuli suggested, they are in #98. Could you verify, that installing from this specific git branch works for you?

python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/TkinterEP/ttkthemes@2025-update

[scottfurry]

@rdbende - Winner!

Collecting git+https://github.com/TkinterEP/ttkthemes@2025-update
  Cloning https://github.com/TkinterEP/ttkthemes (to revision 2025-update) to /private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-req-build-u4w2a49m
  Running command git clone --filter=blob:none --quiet https://github.com/TkinterEP/ttkthemes /private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-req-build-u4w2a49m
  Running command git checkout -b 2025-update --track origin/2025-update
  Switched to a new branch '2025-update'
  branch '2025-update' set up to track 'origin/2025-update'.
  Resolved https://github.com/TkinterEP/ttkthemes to commit f0af04f6d84b97d98689320f965214373babe1ed
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... done
Requirement already satisfied: pillow>=5.0.0 in /Users/[user_name]/venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages (from ttkthemes==3.3.0) (12.0.0)
Building wheels for collected packages: ttkthemes
  Building wheel for ttkthemes (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for ttkthemes: filename=ttkthemes-3.3.0-cp314-cp314-macosx_15_0_x86_64.whl size=1776775 sha256=1c3256f7d42f3015f86d9fd21470b472b071b64c00390c1e759a211fe02038a2
  Stored in directory: /private/var/folders/fp/4qmbhtqn3mn0ryvk6xd31ks80000gn/T/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-8cedomex/wheels/7e/f1/5f/2a91b90abff7a411e4aeba97f5a6dbf0f41228069fcc08be95
Successfully built ttkthemes
Installing collected packages: ttkthemes
Successfully installed ttkthemes-3.3.0

I need to verify package works during runtime, but I want to be hopeful - got past install.