Installation on Linux#

The Arcade library is Python 3.7+ only. First check your version of Python to ensure you have 3.7 or higher:

python -V

If your version shows Python 2.X then try running with:

python3 -V

If that works and shows you Python 3.7+, then anytime you see the python command, replace it with python3.

If you do not have Python 3.7+, please lookup how to install it for your specific distro of Linux. For Ubuntu/Debian this would be with the below command, if you did have Python 3.7, you can skip this step:

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev

Next you’ll need to setup a Virtual Environment. Arcade should always be installed with a virtual environment. Installing outside of a virtual environment can lead to unintended consequences and bugs with your system. You can read more about Virtual Environments at this page: https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/venv.html

python -m venv my_venv

This creates a new folder called my_venv which contains your Python virtual environment. You can now activate it with:

source my_venv/bin/activate

And deactivate it with:

deactivate

Once your venv is activated, you can install Arcade with:

pip install arcade

Raspberry Pi Instructions#

Arcade required OpenGL graphics 3.3 or higher. Unfortunately the Raspberry Pi does not support this, Arcade can not run on the Raspberry Pi.