[python] matplotlib error - no module named tkinter

I tried to use the matplotlib package via Pycharm IDE on windows 10. when I run this code:

from matplotlib import pyplot

I get the following error:

ImportError: No module named 'tkinter'

I know that in python 2.x it was called Tkinter, but that is not the problem - I just installed a brand new python 3.5.1.

EDIT: in addition, I also tried to import 'tkinter' and 'Tkinter' - neither of these worked (both returned the error message I mentioned).

I had the same issue on Win x86/64 because my custom Python3.7 installation did not include Tcl packages, so just modify or re-install your python

https://www.python.org/downloads/release/python-370/

On CentOS 6.5 with python 2.7 I needed to do: yum install python27-tkinter

For the poor guys like me using python 3.7. You need the python3.7-tk package.

sudo apt install python3.7-tk

$ python
Python 3.7.4 (default, Sep  2 2019, 20:44:09)
[GCC 5.4.0 20160609] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tkinter
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tkinter'
>>> exit()

Note. python3-tk is installed. But not python3.7-tk.

$ sudo apt install python3.7-tk
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  tix python3.7-tk-dbg
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  python3.7-tk
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 34 not upgraded.
Need to get 143 kB of archives.
After this operation, 534 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/deadsnakes/ppa/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 python3.7-tk amd64 3.7.4-1+xenial2 [143
kB]
Fetched 143 kB in 0s (364 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package python3.7-tk:amd64.
(Reading database ... 256375 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python3.7-tk_3.7.4-1+xenial2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking python3.7-tk:amd64 (3.7.4-1+xenial2) ...
Setting up python3.7-tk:amd64 (3.7.4-1+xenial2) ...

After installing it, all good.

$ python3
Python 3.7.4 (default, Sep  2 2019, 20:44:09)
[GCC 5.4.0 20160609] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tkinter
>>> exit()

For Windows users, there's no need to download the installer again. Just do the following:

1. Go to start menu, type Apps & features,
2. Search for "python" in the search box,
3. Select the Python version (e.g. Python 3.8.3rc1(32-bit)) and click Modify,
4. On the Modify Setup page click Modify,
5. Tick td/tk and IDLE checkbox (which installs tkinter) and click next.

Wait for installation and you're done.

On CentOS 7 and Python 3.4, the command is sudo yum install python34-tkinter

On Redhat 7.4 with Python 3.6, the command is sudo yum install rh-python36-python-tkinter

If you are using fedora then first install tkinter

sudo dnf install python3-tkinter

I don't think you need to import tkinter afterwards I also suggest you to use virtualenv

$ python3 -m venv myvenv
$ source myvenv/bin/activate

And add the necessary packages using pip

If you are using python 3.6, this worked for me:

sudo apt-get install python3.6-tk

instead of

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

Which works for other versions of python3

Maybe you installed python from source. In this case, you can recompile python with tcl/tk supported.

1. Complie and install tcl/tk from http://www.tcl.tk/software/tcltk/download.html, I'll suppose you installed python at /home/xxx/local/tcl-tk/.

# install tcl
wget -c https://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tcl8.6.9-src.tar.gz
tar -xvzf tcl8.6.9-src.tar.gz
cd tcl8.6.9
./configure --prefix=/home/xxx/local/tcl-tk/
make
make install

# install tk
wget -c https://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/tcl/tk8.6.9.1-src.tar.gz
tar -xvzf tk8.6.9.1-src.tar.gz
cd tk8.6.9.1
./configure --prefix=/home/xxx/local/tcl-tk/
make
make install

2. Recompile python with tcl/tk supported, for example:

# download the source code of python and decompress it first.

cd <your-python-src-dir>
./configure --prefix=/home/xxx/local/python \
 --with-tcltk-includes=/home/xxx/local/tcl-tk/include \
 --with-tcltk-libs=/home/xxx/local/tcl-tk/lib
make 
make install

Almost all answers I searched for this issue say that Python on Windows comes with tkinter and tcl already installed, and I had no luck trying to download or install them using pip, or actviestate.com site. I eventually found that when I was installing python using the binary installer, I had unchecked the module related to TCL and tkinter. So, I ran the binary installer again and chose to modify my python version by this time selecting this option. No need to do anything manually then. If you go to your python terminal, then the following commands should show you version of tkinter installed with your Python:

import tkinter
import _tkinter
tkinter._test()

For windows users, re-run the installer. Select Modify. Check the box for tcl/tk and IDLE. The description for this says "Installs tkinter"

Sometimes (for example in osgeo4w distribution) tkinter is removed.

Try changing matplotlib backend editing matplotlibrc file located in [python install dir]/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc changing The backend parameter from backend: TkAgg to something other like backend: Qt4Aggas described here: http://matplotlib.org/faq/usage_faq.html#what-is-a-backend

you can use

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

if you dont want to use tkinter at all.

Also dont forget to use %matplotlib inline at the top of your notebook if using one.

EDIT: agg is a different backend like tkinter for matplotlib.

On Ubuntu, early 2018, there is no python3.6-tk on ubuntu's (xenial/16.04) normal distributions, so even if you have earlier versions of python-tk this won't work.

My solution was to use set everything up with python 3.5:

 sudo apt install python3.5-tk
 virtualenv --python=`which python3.5` python-env
 source python-env/bin/activate
 pip install -r requirements.txt

And now matplotlib can find tkinter.

EDIT:

I just needed 3.6 afterall, and the trick was to:

sudo apt install tk-dev

and then rebuild python3.6, after tk-dev, eg:

./configure
make
make install

Since I'm using Python 3.7 on Ubuntu I had to use:

sudo apt-get install python3.7-tk

On Centos, the package names and commands are different. You'll need to do:

sudo yum install tkinter

To fix the problem.