uPyCraft on the Raspberry Pi (Ubuntu Buster)

Because I’m used to uPyCraft on my mac machines, to do some python coding on my ESP board (Lilygo ttgo T8 for example), I wanted uPyCraft also on my Raspberry Pi 4.
As I suspected, it was not available, but that didn’t hold me back 🙂
I compiled it from source, this was easier than expected !
(Don’t follow the guide that comes with the uPyCraft sourcecode, you will not get the expected results)

If you also would like to run uPyCraft, follow these steps:
(all commands in red are done on a command-line in a terminal):

Install Python3 and pip:
sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip

Make a PyQt folder in the home-folder, and set the necessary access-rights:
sudo mkdir /home/PyQt
sudo chmod 777 /home/PyQt

Download file (at the bottom of this page) and store it in your /home/pi/Downloads folder !

Goto your Downloads folder, and unzip it, and untar it:
cd /home/pi/Downloads
unzip workfiles.zip
tar zxvf sip-4.19.24.tar.gz -C /home/PyQt
tar zxvf PyQt4_gpl_x11-4.12.tar.gz -C /home/PyQt
tar zxvf QScintilla-gpl-2.9.1.tar.gz -C /home/PyQt

Install needed files:
sudo apt-get install qt4-dev-tools qt4-doc qt4-qtconfig qt4-demos qt4-designer
sudo apt-get install libqwt5-qt4 libqwt5-qt4-dev
sudo apt-get install libqscintilla2-qt4-13 libqscintilla2-qt4-l10n libqscintilla2-qt5-13 libqscintilla2-qt5-l10n
sudo apt-get install python-qt4 python-qt4-dev python3-pyqt4 python3-pyqt4.qsci
sudo apt-get install python3-pyqt5 python3-pyqt5.qsci

Time for some compilations (this may take some time !)
cd /home/PyQt/sip-4.19.24
sudo python3 configure.py
sudo make install

cd /home/PyQt/PyQt4_gpl_x11-4.12
sudo python3 configure.py
sudo make
sudo make install

cd /home/PyQt/QScintilla-gpl-2.9.1
cd Qt4Qt5
qmake
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ../Python
sudo python3 configure.py
sudo make
sudo make install
cd ../designer-Qt4Qt5
qmake designer.pro
sudo make
sudo make install

Finally, time to install uPyCraft:
cd /home/pi/Downloads
unzip uPyCraft_src-master.zip
cd uPyCraft_scr-master
sudo pip3 install pyinstaller
pyinstaller -F uPyCraft.py

uPyCraft is installed on your system, in /home/pi/Downloads/uPyCraft_src-master/dist !
try to run it:
cd dist
./uPyCraft

As a bonus, we do a bit of cleanup !
Close uPyCraft and remove the build-folders:
sudo rm -r -f /home/PyQt
cd /home/pi
mkdir uPyCraft
mv /home/pi/Downloads/uPyCraft_src-master/dist/uPyCraft /home/pi/uPyCraft/
rm -r -f /home/pi/Downloads/uPyCraft_src-master
rm /home/pi/Downloads/sip-4.19.24.tar.gz
rm /home/pi/Downloads/PyQt4_gpl_x11-4.12.tar.gz
rm /home/pi/Downloads/QScintilla-gpl-2.9.1.tar.gz

Everything is cleaned up, and uPyCraft can now be started by the following command:
/home/pi/uPyCraft/uPyCraft

Creating a desktop shortcut:
Look on the internet for a logo that you like to use for the shortcut.
The logo needs to be in PNG format, with a resolution of 128×128 px.
Store it in /home/pi/uPyCraft , and name it logo.png
Continue with the following commands:
cd /home/pi/desktop
nano upycraft.desktop

Put the following text into the nano editor:
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=uPyCraft
Exec=/home/pi/uPyCraft/uPyCraft
Icon=/home/pi/uPyCraft/logo.png

Next, press <ctrl> and <x> , next you get a question to safe the buffer, answer with Y …
The shortcuts appears on your desktop, rename if necesary.
next, type pcmanfm in the terminal window.
Go to Edit => Preferences => General in pcman.
put a checkmark at “Dont’t ask options on launch executable file”

Close everything …
This should be it, you will have a new shortcut on your desktop, doubleclick it to start uPyCraft …

Enjoy 🙂

Workfiles for uPyCraft compilation

1 file(s) 14.69 MB

Download