Installation error on Ubuntu 18.04

[salil19]

I am trying to install Firedrake on my desktop running Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia based (Ubuntu 18.04). I am following the instructions mentioned on the download page. My installation fails with the following error:

ERROR: Package 'fenics-ufl' requires a different Python: 3.6.9 not in '>=3.7'
Exception information:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_internal/resolution/resolvelib/resolver.py", line 93, in resolve
collected.requirements,https://itsfoss.com/check-linux-mint-version/ max_rounds=try_to_avoid_resolution_too_deep
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_vendor/resolvelib/resolvers.py", line 482, in resolve
state = resolution.resolve(requirements, max_rounds=max_rounds)
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_vendor/resolvelib/resolvers.py", line 386, in resolve
raise ResolutionImpossible(self.state.backtrack_causes)
pip._vendor.resolvelib.resolvers.ResolutionImpossible: [RequirementInformation(requirement=RequiresPythonRequirement('>=3.7'), parent=EditableCandidate('file:///home/salil/firedrake/src/ufl'))]

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/base_command.py", line 164, in exc_logging_wrapper
status = run_func(*args)
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/req_command.py", line 205, in wrapper
return func(self, options, args)
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_internal/commands/install.py", line 339, in run
reqs, check_supported_wheels=not options.target_dir
File "/home/salil/firedrake/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pip/_internal/resolution/resolvelib/resolver.py", line 101, in resolve
raise error from e
pip._internal.exceptions.UnsupportedPythonVersion: Package 'fenics-ufl' requires a different Python: 3.6.9 not in '>=3.7'
Removed build tracker: '/tmp/pip-req-tracker-ugxtw754'

2022-10-17 11:54:57,678 INFO

Install log saved in /home/salil/firedrake-install.log

I have also attached the log file. Can someone help me resolve the issue. Thank you
firedrake-install.log

[connorjward]

The Python you are using is too old. You are using 3.6 and Firedrake needs 3.7 or newer. Can you look into installing a more up to date Python?

[salil19]

Thanks for your reply. As by the installation page on the Firedrake website: "Firedrake requires Python 3.6.x to 3.10.x" and " The installation script is tested on Ubuntu and MacOS X. On Ubuntu 18.04 or later, the system installed Python 3 is supported and tested". I therefore tried to install it on my machine. I can try to upgrade to python 3.7 or higher but I am afraid that it might mess up my system. (Ubuntu 18.04 comes with Python 3.6.9). Can you please suggest how to resolve this without changing the default python version.

[dham]

If UFL now requires Python 3.7 then that makes it a hard requirement for Firedrake and we should update the website accordingly. Python 3.6 is now very old and no longer even receives security fixes.

The usual way to install a newer Python on Ubuntu is to use the deadsnakes PPA (https://launchpad.net/~deadsnakes/+archive/ubuntu/ppa). This will give you much more recent Pythons (I suggest going to 3.10). It will install them under a versioned name (e.g. python3.10) so as not to interfere with the system Python.

[salil19]

Thanks for the reply. I installed python3.10 and ran python3.10 firedrake-install. I ended up with the following errors:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/salil/firedrake-install", line 19, in
from pkg_resources import parse_version
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/init.py", line 77, in
import('pkg_resources.extern.packaging.requirements')
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/packaging/requirements.py", line 9, in
from pkg_resources.extern.pyparsing import stringStart, stringEnd, originalTextFor, ParseException
File "", line 1027, in _find_and_load
File "", line 1006, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "", line 672, in _load_unlocked
File "", line 632, in _load_backward_compatible
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/extern/init.py", line 43, in load_module
import(extant)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/pyparsing.py", line 943, in
collections.MutableMapping.register(ParseResults)
AttributeError: module 'collections' has no attribute 'MutableMapping'

I am not very familiar with python and hence I don't know how to resolve this. Can you please help.

[dham]

Somehow your Python3.10 is trying to use /usr/lib/python3, which will be the Python 3.6 system Python. I'm not sure how you're achieving that, but that's the cause of this issue.

[salil19]

It seems that the problem I was having was related to this [bug] (pypa/setuptools#2988). I was able to resolve the issue with the two commands:

1. git clone https://github.com/pypa/setuptools.git && cd setuptools && sudo python3.10 setup.py install
   followed by
2. curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3.10

To be fair, I do not understand the details of the bug but the above two commands solved my problem. I was able to install Firedrake on my machine. Thank you for your help.