Inkscape package should require (not suggest) python-lxml

[jharker]

I wanted to embed my images in the Inkscape SVG file. After learning the (esoteric) way to do this, I went to Effects->Images->Embed All Images...

I then hit "OK" and the following message popped up:

"The fantastic lxml wrapper for libxml2 is required by inkex.py and therefore this extension. Please download and install the latest version from <http://cheeseshop.python.org/pypi/lxml/>, or install it through your package manager by a command like: sudo apt-get install python-lxml"

I checked, and sure enough, that package was missing. I installed python-lxml and then the menu option worked as expected.

I'm running Ubuntu 8.04, a clean, fresh install. I installed the Inkscape package via Synaptic.

My issue is, why doesn't the Inkscape package require python-lxml? I checked, and it "suggests" the python-lxml package but does not require it.

Considering that this menu option is not obviously denoted an "extension", "plugin", or "module", it's frustrating that it doesn't work with the base installation.

[LCID Fire (lcid-fire)]

I agree.

[Luca Bruno (lucab)]

This should be fixed by the maintainer of the package in Ubuntu.

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

As of version 0.46, Ubuntu "recommends" rather than "suggests" python-lxml. Recommended dependencies are installed by default in recent Ubuntu releases, so this should be fixed. All the core features of inkscape will still work without python-lxml, so I think "recommends" is more appropriate than "depends".

[Alex Valavanis (valavanisalex)]

This is an ubuntu packaging issue, so I don't think it needs to stay open upstream