Linux Mint 17 tkinter not installed

Question

I was trying to run a program that I have been making and ran into a problem with tkinter not being installed, as when I try to run my script in pycharm I get this error: ImportError: No module named '_tkinter', pleaseinstall the python3-tk package`

So I searched on here and found a solution and entered these commands:

sudo apt-get install python-support
sudo update-python-modules -a

which didn't work so I tried:

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

which was tagged as the answer on this question but it threw this error at me:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

Being pretty new to linux and the terminal, I am completely clueless as to how to do this.

I am using python 3.5 and just want to install tkinter so I can run this script, also before anyone asks yes I have imported tkinter and not Tkinter.

you checked http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4783810/install-tkinter-for-python? — Rajkumar R, Dec 21 '15 at 15:50
I checked out the answer for that and still get the same error — Samuel Leo Muzsnyai, Dec 21 '15 at 15:52
Have you ran the `sudo dpkg` statement it tells you? You just run that from the same place you are doing `sudo apt-get` stuff. — OneCricketeer, Dec 21 '15 at 16:12
I get this: `dpkg: error: dpkg status database is locked by another process` — Samuel Leo Muzsnyai, Dec 21 '15 at 17:03
Now if I try to run `sudo apt-get install python3-tk` I get this error: `E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable) E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?` — Samuel Leo Muzsnyai, Dec 21 '15 at 17:04
You are running another instance of `apt`, which locks `/var/lib/dpkg/lock`. — , Dec 22 '15 at 10:38
@wilbur if I run that command you gave me I got this output: http://pastebin.com/K7dHAcWC — Samuel Leo Muzsnyai, Dec 22 '15 at 21:21
@pydev I don't understand, i've used apt before to install software so why doesn't it work now. — Samuel Leo Muzsnyai, Dec 22 '15 at 21:21

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 18 '16 at 19:03

sudo apt-get install python3-tk is the correct way to install tkinter for Python 3 on Linux. However, you interrupted apt while it was installing. To fix the errors, run the command the error message suggested and then install tkinter.

sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get install python3-tk

Then you can add from tkinter import *, import tkinter as tk or import tkinter to the beginning of your program depending on how you want to use it. You may also be interested in installing idle-python3.4.

Next time you need to install something just open the software manager from Menu, search for the program and install it :-)

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 21 '18 at 21:39

Well when all logic fails- panic. Look for the illogical. I found that I was not running Python 3. My text editor is Geany, and reverts everything to run its default, which was set at Python 2. That included #!.

So, change the defaults in Geany:

Build > Set build commands > then in the dialogs replace every instance of Python with Python3

Linux Mint 17 tkinter not installed

2 Answers2