Why can python3 not import gi.repository?

Question

Python2 does not suffer the same problem.

greg@greg-precise:~$ python3

Python 3.2.3 (default, May  3 2012, 15:51:42) 
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>> from gi.repository import Gtk

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named gi.repository

(line breaks added for clarity)

Solution

You should install the correct Python 3 packages, these are prepended with python3- instead of python- .

This will do the trick:

sudo apt-get install python3-gi

Or search this package in your favorite package manager.

Comments

[dobey]

Also be aware that everything you wish to use may not have all the necessary pieces to use from Python 3 available in the 12.04 packaging. Some libraries have special Python overrides which need to be installed in the Python 3 directories for python3-gi to use those bindings properly.