Not able to install Howdy in Ubuntu

Question

Every time i try to install howdy, i get the same message, I even tried making a virtual python environment but it did not work. { Upgrading pip to the latest version error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed ╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to install.

If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
sure you have python3-full installed.
If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

}

Answer 1

I was trying to figure out the messages that OP is seeing here. So, I spun up a Ubuntu 23.10 VM and stepped through the installation from https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy

Ran the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:boltgolt/howdy
sudo apt update
sudo apt install howdy

During the install the error message did indeed appear:

error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed ╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to install.

If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
sure you have python3-full installed.
If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.
See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.

According to the solution at https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy/issues/807#issuecomment-1615973699 I ran the sudo apt install howdy command again.

terrance@ubuntu2310-test:~$ sudo apt install howdy
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
howdy is already the newest version (2.6.1).
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  dkms libgsoap-2.8.124 liblzf1 libtpms0 libvncserver1 virtualbox-dkms
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Setting up howdy (2.6.1) ...
Attempting installation of missing data files
Downloading 3 required data files...
dlib_face_recogniti 100%[===================>]  20.44M  2.02MB/s    in 9.8s    
mmod_human_face_det 100%[===================>] 678.41K  3.46MB/s    in 0.2s    
shape_predictor_5_f 100%[===================>]   5.44M  3.72MB/s    in 1.5s    
Unpacking...

And I created the link to howdy

sudo ln /lib/security/howdy/cli.py /usr/local/bin/howdy

And now the howdy app works just fine.

terrance@ubuntu2310-test:~$ howdy
current active user: terrance
usage: howdy [-U USER] [-y] [-h] command [argument]
Command line interface for Howdy face authentication.
positional arguments:
  command               The command option to execute, can be one of the
                        following: add, clear, config, disable, list, remove,
                        snapshot, test or version.
  argument              Either 0 (enable) or 1 (disable) for the disable
                        command, or the model ID for the remove command.
options:
  -U USER, --user USER  Set the user account to use.
  -y                    Skip all questions.
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.
For support please visit
https://github.com/boltgolt/howdy