“IOError: decoder zip not available” : Ubuntu Python PIL

Question

I am trying to get the sample heatmap.py running from: http://jjguy.com/heatmap/

#image.py
import heatmap
import random

if __name__ == \"__main__\":    
            


        

Answer 1

I just encountered a similar issue caused by having both PIL (installed through the python pip installer) and the python-imaging package installed via apt-get. When I removed the extra version from pip that resolved it for me.

If you installed PIL from source or using pip then you might have the same problem.

When I was building PIL I also discovered that I had to link over the libraries to /usr/lib. That might resolve the not supported messages in your log above.

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so /usr/lib
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so /usr/lib
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so /usr/lib