Installing music21 on GNU/Linux and other operating systems¶
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc. generally work on music21. Many people, including all of the major developers of music21 run it on various deployed GNU/Linux, Unix, AWS-Unix, Android, iOS, etc. systems throughout the world. However, no systems except recent Mac and Windows OSes are officially supported.
By choosing to use Unix-like systems you should be an advanced user on your OS, able to deal with the issues of libraries, linkage, external files, etc. specific to (and different on) each Unix-like system. The music21list should not be used for installation/configuration problems on your operating system. Because of the number of different Unix variants, the list maintainers will only entertain music21-specific problems that can also be reproduced on Mac or Windows.
To reiterate: GNU/Linux/etc. is not a system for which support questions will be answered. See Consulting in the FAQ for details on paid support.
Check Your Version of Python¶
Music21 requires a recent version of Python.
To determine the Python version you have installed, open a shell or terminal and enter the following command-line argument (where “$” is the prompt):
$ python3 -V
it should display something like:
Python 3.10.7
if so, you’re okay. If not, upgrade your version of Python. This is often a problem on some AWS configuations, Google Colab, etc. which do not ship by default with recent versions of Python.
Download music21¶
Download the newest version with:
pip3 install –upgrade music21
Configure music21¶
Configure music21 with:
python3 -m music21.configure
It is important to put the path to your MusicXML reader during these prompts. Music21 cannot find where your XML reader (probably MuseScore) is installed on most Unix/Linux systems. If you do not know about filepaths and how to find them, you should probably not be using GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, etc. with music21.
On most OSes you’ll find your configuration file in ~/.music21rc, but this is not guaranteed.
After Installation¶
After a successful installation, you may proceed to Notes to begin using music21.
Learned Experience¶
Issues that people have reported and solved on non-Mac/Windows systems include:
Android: there is an issue with semaphores and multiprocessing in Android, this seems to be fixed with before importing music21 running: import _multiprocessing; _multiprocessing.sem_unlink = None
(If you have other issues that you have solved, please file a PR to add it to this section).
Still have problems?¶
If you have followed all the instructions and still encounter problems, start over from scratch and try it again very carefully. If you still have problems contact an expert in your operating system.
The music21 maintainers cannot help with Unix installation problems except as paid support. See Consulting in the FAQ for details on paid support.