Thonny, Pipkin and local MicroPython package management, is it possible?

[brianlinuxing]

Is there any way to allow a local version of MicroPython to have the package management facilities, as exists with the Pico etc

Scenario A:

Running Thonny on a networked Pico, the Manage packages option is available and works well. I can install the certifi package without any issues.

Scenario B:

Running Thonny on a locally build version of MicroPython, the Manage packages option is not available.

If I use upip, instead, to install ceftifi directly it fails.

Reasoning:

I want to test code locally under the Linux version of MicroPython, calculate package sizes, fix code then migrate to the Pico device.

But for that to work well I need package management on the local Linux version of MicroPython to work consistently.

Upip will work with some modules and fail with others, however, when in the Thonny package management is much better.

[The images upip_v4 abd upip_v5 show Thonny working on a local Linux version. upip_v6 is Thonny connected to the networked Pico.]

Question:

Is there a trick to invoking pipkin either inside MicroPython on Linux or getting it to work well with the /.micropython/lib structure to put modules there?

PS: I know some of the packages aren’t meant to work with MicroPython and I will fix that code as it goes along, but firstly I would like to get the modules into the /.micropython/lib structure without too much hassle.

I would welcome helpful suggestions.

Thanks, Brian.

[brianlinuxing]

I had an idea, but I'd welcome suggestions from @aivarannamaa

1. I’d called pipkin locally (everything is running in a VM) and get it to pull over what I needed, outside of Thonny.

It nearly seems to work, except for an odd error about pip (which is installed elsewhere, but I am probably missing something)

The command executed: /home/brian/.local/bin/pipkin -v --dir /home/brian/.micropython/lib install micropython-logging

2. The output suggests either an error message should come up and say "this bit is missing" or have a suggested method of rectifying it:

brian@SparkyuPython3:~$ /home/brian/.local/bin/pipkin -v --dir /home/brian/.micropython/lib install micropython-logging

The output:

Starting install Start populating venv Using existing working environment at /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557 Received lock on the working environment Querying site packages path for /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557 Got site packages path /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557/lib/python3.10/site-packages Clearing /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557/lib/python3.10/site-packages Done populating venv Querying site packages path for /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557 Got site packages path /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557/lib/python3.10/site-packages Using PipkinProxy at http://127.0.0.1:36628 Calling pip: /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557/bin/python3 -I -m pip --disable-pip-version-check --trusted-host 127.0.0.1 install --no-compile --use-pep517 --upgrade-strategy only-if-needed micropython-logging --index-url http://127.0.0.1:36628 /home/brian/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/77b23d5cc84289b84f594d790c14a557/bin/python3: No module named pip

3. I checked $PATH just in case something was missing but seems OK: echo "${PATH//:/$'\n'}" /usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/local/games /usr/games /home/brian/.local/bin

[aivarannamaa]

Thank you for this topic!

Actually, Pipkin already has placeholders for supporting local (and remote over SSH) Unix MicroPython target, eg: https://github.com/aivarannamaa/pipkin/blob/afca9bccc41707a13795ca17148d3914ded063b1/pipkin/adapters.py#L293

I just created an explicit issue as a reminder for this: https://github.com/aivarannamaa/pipkin/issues/3

Once this part gets solved, I'll enable this in Thonny as well.

[brianlinuxing]

Thank you very much. :)

[brianlinuxing]

BTW, when you are closer to a solution I am very, very happy to test it on the Linux side. before release :)