Building Python 3.5 on Raspberry Pi 2 (Raspbian)

Building Python 3.5 on Raspberry Pi 2 (Raspbian)

1. Problem

Problem: we want use the latest version of Python to run Flask and other fun stuff on our RPi 2 (mod. B). But only old version of Python (3.2) supported by apt-get.

We need to build and install our own build of latest Python release! So, our target will be Python 3.5.

Also, you may want to know What’s New In Python 3.5

UPD! You can follow procedures for Python 3.6 installation by following Building Python 3.6 on Raspberry Pi 3 from sources (clean Debian)

2. Solution

2.1. Preparation

2.1.1. SD card backup

You need make backup of whole SD card

On Windows you can use Win32DiskImager. This is GUI application and it's must be easy in use.

On Linux you can use dd:

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=/dev/sdb | gzip > /home/your_username/image`date +%d%m%y`.gz

This command will also compress your backup image with gzip. When you need to restore backed up image use this command:

$ gzip -dc /home/your_username/image.gz | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sdb

2.1.2. Updating System

We need latest versions of everything on our system. So, let's update everything:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade -y
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Now we need install components which will be necessary for our Python build:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libncursesw5-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev
$ sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev libsqlite3-dev tk-dev
$ sudo apt-get install libssl-dev openssl

2.2. Building Python

Now let's go home then download, build and install our new Python.

Going home:

$ cd ~

Retrieving source codes of Python 3.5 (downloading time depends on your connection width):

$ wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.5.0/Python-3.5.0.tgz

Unpacking sources archive (it can take approx half a minute):

$ tar -zxvf Python-3.5.0.tgz

Going de-e-e-eper:

$ cd Python-3.5.0

Configuring (takes few minutes):

$ ./configure

Building (takes approx. 30 minutes):

$ make

Installing our own-built-python-release (few minutes for this operation):

$ sudo make install

2.3. Testing installation

If everything is OK you will be able to find python3.5 command by pressing TAB after printing python to your shell. Also, you can test installation by running command:

$ python3.5 --version

If everything is OK you will get output like this:

Python 3.5.0

Congratulations, now you have installed Python 3.5.

3. Installing pip

3.1. Installing pip

If you want to use pip for you Python 3.5 installation let's install it.

Going home:

$ cd ~

Downloading needful script:

$ wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py

Running this script using our Python 3.5:

$ sudo python3.5 get-pip.py

3.2. Testing installed pip

Let's test just installed pip:

$ pip3.5 --version

We will get something like this:

pip 7.1.2 from /usr/local/lib/python3.5/site-packages (python 3.5)

Enjoy!