How to Install PyGTK in Python on Linux?

PyGTK module allows GUI development using Python. It is an open-source and cross-platform library that provides an interface to the GIMP toolkit (GTK) in python. It is accessed through the PyGObject package which provides bindings for GObject-based libraries like GTK. Note that in python3, PyGTK and GTK are the same things. It is a great alternative to the Tkinter module which comes bundled with python. It provides a lot of tools and elements for constructing a GUI. You can install it on Linux, Mac, or Windows. In this article, we will see how to install PyGTK on Linux.

Requirements:

• Python3
• Python3-pip

Installation of PyGTK in Python on Linux

Follow the below steps, to install PyGTK in Python on Linux Operating System.

Step 1: Let's start by installing Python. To do so, run the following command in your terminal

sudo apt install python3

Step 2: Now, run the following command to install the PIP package manager which we will use to install the PyGTK module. 

sudo apt install python3-pip

Step 3: Now, PyGTK is accessed through the PyGObject package. So, if we install the PyGObject package, we will have access to the entire GObject-based libraries, which include GTK. To Install PyGObject, GTK, let's, and other required dependencies, run the following command.

sudo apt install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-3.0

That's it, now let's verify if we are able to access GTK in python.

Verifying PyGTK package installation on Linux

Create a new python file with the following contents

import gi
gi.require_version("Gtk", "3.0")
from gi.repository import Gtk

window = Gtk.Window(title="Test Window")
window.show()
window.connect("destroy", Gtk.main_quit)
Gtk.main()

Execute the file and if a window pops up, then it means that your installation was successful.