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I am running ubuntu on a raspberry pi and I cannot figure out how to activate the GPIO pins. I am trying to activate a python script with a button press.

Here is my script:

import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import time
import os

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)

GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)

while True:
    input_state = GPIO.input(18)
    if input_state == False:
    os.system('python backup.py')
        time.sleep(0.2)

GPIO.cleanup()

When I run this I get an error that says; no such import as import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

Any help would be appreciated.

Bruni
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caleb lafferty
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1 Answers1

8

In the terminal type:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install python-pip python-dev
pip install --user RPi.GPIO

If you are using Python 3.x run these commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install python3-pip python3-dev
pip3 install --user RPi.GPIO

The raspberry-gpio-python examples are worth reading. In the Inputs example there is this code snippet:

while GPIO.input(channel) == GPIO.LOW:
    time.sleep(0.01)

It waits 10 ms to give CPU a chance to do other things.

karel
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    why sudo apt-get upgrade? seems like that is completely unnecessary – knocte Aug 27 '16 at 22:06
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    Because python-pip is a third-party package manager and therefore inherently less stable than using apt to install software from the default repositories, I would prefer to update all the other software before installing pip. – karel Aug 28 '16 at 00:32
  • does this add the /dev/gpio device as seen in the raspbian kernel or this this a python workaround? – FalcoGer Nov 05 '19 at 09:56
  • RPi.GPIO Python package provides a class to control the GPIO on a Raspberry Pi. – karel Nov 05 '19 at 10:01