Panda3D Manual: Installing Panda in Linux
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The Installation Process - Linux

The easiest way to install panda is to use the RPM or DEB packages. This is only possible if your version of Linux is one of the provided versions of Linux. If not, you will need to compile from source. If there is an installer available, download and install the RPM or DEB appropriate to your version of Linux.

It has been discovered that some of the DEB and RPM files work on versions other than the one for which they were intended. For example, the package for Debian Sarge has also been found to work with Debian Sid. If you have a slight variant of one of the supplied operating systems, it may be easier to try the package before you bother with compiling panda yourself.

However, python packages (like Panda3D) need to be compiled for a particular version of python. If one version of Linux uses, say, python 2.4, and the other uses python 2.5, then you can't transplant a package from one to the other: it just won't work, period. In that case, you will need to build your own version, or better yet, ask your distribution maintainer to include Panda3D.

After installing panda, you should run the sample programs to verify that the installation is good. To do so, you need to change directory to the panda samples directory, select a sample program, change directory to that sample, and run the sample using Python:

$ cd /usr/share/panda3d/samples
$ ls
Asteroids
Ball-in-Maze
Boxing-Robots
Carousel
Cartoon-Shader
Chessboard
Disco-Lights
Fireflies
Fractal-Plants
Glow-Filter
GUI
Infinite-Tunnel
Looking-and-Gripping
Media-Player
Motion-Trails
Music-Box
Normal-Mapping
Particles
Procedural-Cube
Roaming-Ralph
Shadows
Solar-System
Teapot-on-TV
Texture-Swapping
$ cd Boxing-Robots
$ python Tut-Boxing-Robots.py

What to do if you see the Error Message:

If you see this error:

display(error): The application requested harware acceleration, but your OpenGL
display(error): driver, GDI Generic, only supports software rendering.
display(error): You need to install a hardware-accelerated OpenGL driver, or,
display(error): if you actually *want* to use a software renderer, then
display(error): alter the hardware/software configuration in your Config.prc file.
display(error): Window wouldn't open; abandoning window.

This error is fairly self-explanatory: it means your video drivers are inadequate. Obtain better drivers.


What to do if you see the Error Message:
ImportError: No module named direct.directbase.DirectStart

This error means it couldn't find the python modules -- please make sure you are running the correct version of Python (probably python 2.5, that depends on the Panda3D version) and that the panda3d.pth is located inside the python site-packages directory.

What to do if you see the Error Message:
Warning: DirectNotify: category 'Interval' already exists

This error is of no consequence. Ignore it.


What to do if you see the Error Message:
ImportError: /usr/lib/panda3d/libpandaexpress.so: undefined symbol: PyUnicodeUCS4_AsWideChar

This could mean that your version of python is compiled with the flag Py_UNICODE_SIZE set to 2. Please find a python version compiled with Py_UNICODE_SIZE set to 4 (which is usually the default). See this forum topic for a more detailed explanation about this problem.

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