Linux Beginner Installation

It is important to note that as part of the installation, you will be creating an isolated environment to execute Python inside. Make sure that this environment is activated in order to be able to use Menpo!

The installation instructions are split up in to a number of sections. Please follow them carefully, in order:

Prerequisites
Install A Python Environment
Using Conda
Setting Up A Fresh Environment
Installing The Menpo Project Into Conda
Begin Using Menpo

1. Prerequisites

First, we need to install an isolated Python environment. Python does not come with a graphical user interface and so we will need to run a number of commands in the terminal. You can access the terminal by pressing the Super key to open the Dash and searching for terminal.

We need to make sure you install the correct software for your architecture (32-bit or 64-bit). If you are unsure what version of Ubuntu you are running, you can find out by running the following command in a terminal:

$ uname -m

This will output a short string that tells you what version of Linux you are using.

2. Install A Python Environment

The Python environment we will use is called conda, and it is provided by an installation package called Miniconda.

Download Miniconda from here

Download either the Python 2 or Python 3 copy of Miniconda for your architecture of Ubuntu (32-bit or 64-bit).

After downloading Miniconda, you need to change to that directory within a terminal so that we can run the installation shell script. Assuming that your browser downloaded the script to ~/Downloads, you can start the installer by running:

$ cd ~/Downloads
$ chmod +x Miniconda2-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
$ ./Miniconda2-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh

The name of the Miniconda may be different, but you just need to run chmod in order to make the script executable. Once the installation has begun, accept the license terms when prompted by typing yes and press Enter to accept the default installation location. It is important that you say yes when prompted whether or not the installer should prepend the Miniconda install location to your PATH:

3. Using Conda

After installing Miniconda, close your current terminal and open another in order to activate the installation. You should have access to a new command within the terminal, conda. You can test this is working by entering the command

$ conda -V

Which will print something like conda 3.17.0, though the version number may differ.

4. Setting Up A Fresh Environment

We now need to create an environment to store all of our Python packages inside. It doesn't matter what path you are within the terminal, the conda command will not create any files locally. So, we use the command

$ conda create -n menpo python

This will inform you that you are creating a new environment and installing Python inside of it. The environment name is given by -n menpo (the environment will be called menpo) and only python and it's direct dependencies will be installed inside by default.

To ensure you want to continue, Conda will prompt you about if you wish to proceed. Type y and Enter to continue. Conda will create a new environment for you and give you some information about activating your new environment called menpo.

Now, activate the menpo environment with the command:

$ source activate menpo

Notice that the terminal is now prefixed with a label:

(menpo)$

This let's you know that the menpo environment is enabled. It is important to ensure that the menpo environment is activated before attempting to use Menpo in any way!

5. Installing The Menpo Project Into Conda

Installing all the packages of the Menpo Project only requires a single command:

(menpo)$ conda install -c conda-forge menpo menpofit menpodetect menpo3d

This will install menpo, menpofit, menpodetect and menpo3d. If you do not need all Menpo packages, you can explicitly install any of them as:

(menpo)$ conda install -c conda-forge menpo
(menpo)$ conda install -c conda-forge menpofit
(menpo)$ conda install -c conda-forge menpodetect
(menpo)$ conda install -c conda-forge menpo3d

Conda will then attempt to install all of our requirements. It appears there are many, but this is due to the minimal nature of the environment we originally created. As before, Conda will prompt you to proceed, type y and press Enter to continue.

It may take a short time to download and install all of Menpo's dependencies, during which you will see a number of progress bars. The command is complete when the extracting and linking processes show COMPLETE.

Congratulations! You have now installed the latest version of the Menpo Project!

6. Begin Using Menpo

In order to start using Menpo, we suggest you have a look through our collection of Examples using Jupyter notebook. Follow the instructions there to download the notebooks and run them.

We strongly advise you to read the User Guides for all the packages in order to understand the basic concepts behind the Menpo Project. They can be found in:

If you need more help you can always ask on the menpo-users mailing list.

Beginner