Broke Zorin 8 with Python 3

I've been doing some Python programming in my Zorin VM (VirtualBox) using the 2.7 version of Python that came on the Zorin ISO. After a while I realized that I needed to go to Python 3 for some of its inherent capabilities (missing in 2.7). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that version 3.3 was also on the ISO, meaning I already had the version I needed. So I decided to change the symbolic link from 2.7 to 3.3 using the following command:

Code:

ln -sf python3 python     <= done in the /usr/bin directory

That's when my trouble started. Seemed to work okay. I'd type "python" and the 3.3 version of Idle would come up. My existing .py programs now all used the 3.3 version too. I know this because I had to change all my "print" statements (don't get me started on THAT soapbox). However, when I rebooted I suddenly had problems. The system wouldn't boot - I kept getting video errors. I then used GRUB to boot to one of the alternate configurations but even the, the Zorin menu and AVANT applets wouldn't run and Zorin report error after error. I had trouble even getting a terminal window up because all my desktop icons were gone and the Zorin menu applet was dead (Tip: use CTRL-ALT-T hot key to bring up a terminal). At first I thought something in one of the update/upgrades or Python packages I'd installed messed things up but after several iterations, one being to completely blow away and reinstall Zorin 8, I realized the problem started when I changed the symbolic link.

Once I changed it back to point to Python 2.7, the applet's started working and everyone seemed to be a happy camper. So apparently Zorin doesn't seem to like Python 3 all that much.

Hi,

I am not really sure but I would try removing it and re-installing version 3 and see if that helps:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/173323/h ... ed-via-pip

I don't really have much more for you sorry!.

Did you run an update after messing around with it?.

Similar thread to Wolfman's posting - something to do with pip(?):

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1676 ... untu-13-04

See bottom reply.

Wolfman wrote:I am not really sure but I would try removing it and re-installing version 3 and see if that helps:

Did you run an update after messing around with it?.

I didn't try reinstalling it as my system was completely unstable after changing that link - plus, when I tried doing the update/upgrade route, I got all kinds of errors. I initially thought something went wrong in my update because I changed the link then tried the update.

Some further research on the web showed that there is some danger to changing symbolic links on Linux systems especially with Python since there are some significant differences between the two. Plus I was able to replicate the problem in two different systems...take a working system, change the symbolic link, watch it break, change it back, watch it work again. My guess is that if we were to ask the programmers of Zorin/applets, they'd confirm that messing with the links is a bad idea.

There may be a better way to make Python v3 the default version (virtualenv being one example) but "ln -s..." definitely doesn't seem to be one of them. But if anyone reading this is feeling brave, I'd love to get confirmation.

As an alternative, I just changed my program(s) to point to the newer version of Python and everything is happy.