PyInstaller fails on Windows 7: “Can't find a usable init.tcl”

Question

I have a basic Python script which uses Tkinter.

from Tkinter import Tk
from tkFileDialog import askdirectory
Tk().withdraw()
print askdirectory()
         


        

Answer 1

As RedPhantom mentioned, PyInstaller has a known issue with Tkinter applications on Windows 7 and Windows XP.

Since this issue has gone unfixed for two years, I've gone ahead and started a bounty on Bountysource. Until the issue is fixed, there are a few workarounds you can try:

Workaround 1 - Manually copy missing files

As mentioned in a related issue, you can manually copy the missing files from your local Python installation.

1. Find your local Python installation. (%LocalAppData%\Programs\Python)
2. Make a copy of the missing folder (...\Python36-32\tcl\)
3. Move the copy to your application's tcl folder (...\dist\\tcl\)

Workaround 2 - Run with --onefile

Running PyInstaller in --onefile mode seems to avoid this issue.

However, note that running in single file mode will increase startup time.

Workaround 3 - Downgrade to PyInstaller 3.1.0

pip install pyinstaller==3.1.0

According to ugoertz, downgrading to PyInstaller 3.1.0 resolved the issue.

Downgrading to 3.1.0 (and also downgrading setuptools to 19.2 because of the problem described in #1941) fixed the issue for me.