The Eric Python IDE

How to install the eric IDE on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 computer

In order to use eric7 on a Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 5 computer a Linux distribution providing Qt6 and PyQt6 packages need to be installed. This recipe was tested on "Ubuntu 24.10 and "Manjaro ARM". This requirement is there because up to now no PyQt6-QScintilla wheel is available for the aarch64 architecture (ARM computers) via the Python Packaging Index PyPI.

Step 1: Qt6 and PyQt6

Ensure the following Qt6 and PyQt6 packages are installed or install them.

Ubuntu

Manjaro ARM

Step 2: Spell Checking

If spell checking is desired, ensure the following packages are installed.

Step 3: Prepare eric Installation

In order to install eric it is recommended to create a Python virtual environment in order to isolate the eric execution environment as much as possible from the standard installation. In order to create this environment execute the following in a terminal window.

    python3 -m venv --system-site-packages ~/eric_env
    ~/eric_env/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip

Note: The switch --system-site-packages is necessary because there are is no complete set of PyQt6/Qt6 packages available for the AArch64 (ARM) platform. This necessitates the use of the packages provided by the distribution.

Step 4: Install eric (eric-ide)

Install eric into the created Python virtual environment by following these steps.

    ~/eric_env/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade --prefer-binary eric-ide
    ~/eric_env/bin/eric7_post_install

The second command will create and install desktop menu entries for the eric IDE and the eric Web Browser.