Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Any GR MacOS X 10.5 Intel Users?

[Michael Dickens]

On Sep 30, 2008, at 11:50 AM, Thomas Schmid wrote:
> I tried to install GNU Radio on 10.5.5, but it didn't work. Shortly
> after the install, I had a HD crash, and thus have to start from
> scratch at some point. I can write down what I am doing for others, if
> that would be helpful?

Can't hurt; I'm always in favor of other OSX users providing input as  
to how well GR / USRP is working for them, or that functionality broke  
on the latest system update, or whatever.  We're testing GR / USRPs in  
our labs on both PPC and Intel Macs, running 10.4 and 10.5, and it  
really seems as though updating to 10.5.5 causes fusb to work  
intermittently.  Bad Apple ...

> One question that I remember I had during the install: Which python
> should I use? While installing some of the port packages, port
> automatically installed an additional python, and thus I had two
> pythons, both 2.5, installed, and I think that this was one of the
> conflicts that I had at the end. Since Mac OS X already comes with
> 2.5, I think port should not reinstall one, though how can I force
> port to do so?

Here's -much- more info than you asked for on how Python works on  
OSX ...

Mac OS X 10.4 comes with Python 2.3.  10.5 comes with 2.5.  MacPorts  
(and Fink) provide the latest 2.5.X release, which Apple generally  
doesn't even with system updates.  I know from discussions with  
MacPorts developers that they try to stay away from Apple's pre- 
installed packages as much as possible, relying on them only when  
there is no other choice.  Since Python can reasonably easily be  
compiled / installed on OSX, with or without Framework, MacPorts makes  
all Python packages dependent on their own version of Python (I tried  
to convince them that it would be desirable to have a "+apple"  
variable to use Apple's provided Python, but none of the MP developers  
liked that idea).  MacPorts also includes a package called  
"python_select" which allows choosing which version to use (Apple's,  
Fink's, MacPort's, self-installed, whatever).

Having multiple versions of Python installed is OK, so long as the  
environment PATH and PYTHONPATH are set correctly to point to the same  
Python version scripts.  For example, if the first Python in the PATH  
is 2.3, and the PYTHONPATH includes directories for 2.5, then that  
will be a problem.  I include in my ~/.bash_login file something like:

+++++++++

export PYTHON_VERSION=`python -V 2>&1 | sed -e 'address@hidden@ @2' | awk  
'{ print $2 }'`
export PYTHON_ROOT=`which python | sed -e 's@/bin/python@@g'`
PYTHONPATH=${PYTHON_ROOT}/lib/python${PYTHON_VERSION}/site-packages
# for GNU Radio default prefix;
# change "/usr/local" to reflect the correct configure prefix
if [ ${PYTHON_ROOT} != "/usr/local" ]; then
    PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH}:/usr/local/lib/python${PYTHON_VERSION}/ 
site-packages
fi
export PYTHONPATH

+++++++++

which, of course, depends on the installed version of Python not  
changing ... else one would need to "source ~/.bash_login" to get  
these environment variables updated.  IIRC, for non-Framework installs  
of Python, the default (intrinsic) PYTHONPATH includes '${PYTHON_ROOT}/ 
lib/python${PYTHON_VERSION}/site-packages'.  For the Framework version  
on OSX, this is NOT included by default because the Python binary  
"knows" about the Framework install location and looks there instead.   
Hence this particular part of the PYTHONPATH must be included on OSX.   
I submitted a quick and simple patch to MacPorts for the default  
Python configure script that added this path, but it was rejected.   
Instead, they decided to link the 'site-packages' directories from the  
Framework to the one above.

Hope that's clearer than mud. - MLD