Tostring() has been removed. Please call tobytes() instead

Question

I try to install Reddit on my ubuntu server but I get an error after "make" line.

Please see the all lines from the server.

[+] including definitions from Makefile.py
python setup.py build
Cannot find Baseplate. Skipping Thrift build.
running build
running build_py
running build_ext
python setup.py build_ext --inplace  # copy the .so files from cython into the source tree
Cannot find Baseplate. Skipping Thrift build.
running build_ext
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/sgm.so -> r2/lib
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/wrapped.so -> r2/lib
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/db/_sorts.so -> r2/lib/db
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/mr_tools/_mr_tools.so -> r2/lib/mr_tools
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/utils/_utils.so -> r2/lib/utils
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/r2/lib/utils/comment_tree_utils.so -> r2/lib/utils
copying build/lib.linux-x86_64-2.7/Cfilters.so -> 
# see above
rm -f build/public/static/sprite-reddit.png build/public/static/reddit.css
python r2/lib/nymph.py build/public/static/css/reddit.less build/public/static/sprite-reddit.png > build/public/static/css/reddit.less.tmp
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "r2/lib/nymph.py", line 185, in <module>
    print spritify(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])
  File "r2/lib/nymph.py", line 178, in spritify
    images = _load_spritable_images(css_filename)
  File "r2/lib/nymph.py", line 94, in _load_spritable_images
    image_hash = hashlib.md5(image.convert("RGBA").tostring()).hexdigest()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Pillow-3.2.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/PIL/Image.py", line 699, in tostring
    "Please call tobytes() instead.")
Exception: tostring() has been removed. Please call tobytes() instead.
make: *** [build/public/static/reddit.css] Error 1

It is not a bug of the script because I found some similar posting but is not applicable for me too. https://www.reddit.com/r/redditdev/comments/19ntpk/make_fails_buildpublicstaticredditcss_error_127/ and https://www.reddit.com/comments/26dasw/_/

Something are missing or is set wrong but I don't know what... Please help me to fix it.

Solution

The code needs an older version (before 3.0) of Pillow than the one you have (3.2.0).

Try to remove your manually installed Pillow from /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/Pillow-3.2.0-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg and install an older version instead.

Comments

[Fabian Dellwing]

As stated in askubuntu.com/a/768450/576209 you need to downgrade Pillow. As of 16-07-2018 you should use Pillow 2.8.1, as 2.1.0 will throw an error and will not be succesfully installed.

[Esembled INTL]

Great. I try to install as per: pypi.python.org/pypi/Pillow/2.1.0 but the terminal install 3.2 not 2.1. Some help how to unistall 3.2.0 again and install an older version ?

[Christopher B. Adkins]

If you've used pip install your current Pillow then pip install Pillow==2.1.0 should get you v2.1.0