terminator not starting when default python is python3.4 but works if it is python2.7

Question

On Ubuntu 15.10 when changing the symlink /usr/bin/python from python2.7 to python3.4 then terminator won t start anymore. Do you know what the problem could be and how to fix it? Thank you :)

Answer 1

You can simply fix it by editing /usr/bin/terminator shebang path back to python2, see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/terminator/+bug/1621156

Answer 2

Edit the /usr/bin/terminator

sudo vi /usr/bin/terminator

and change the first line (shebang)

#!/usr/bin/python

to

#!/usr/bin/python2

NOTE: Get the path of python2 using:

$ which python2
/usr/bin/python2

Answer 3

To solve the problem I had to change the python3 version (I had 3.9 and changed to 3.8). Try to change it directly in the first line of /usr/bin/terminator, from

#!/usr/bin/python3

to ex 3.8

#!/usr/bin/python3.8

if this doesn't work try unlink python3 from 3.9 and link to 3.8 and then reinstall terminator:

use python3 -V too see immediatly which version you have to see if it is 3.9

1)goto usr/bin: cd /usr/bin

2)check each python command what is linked to: ls -lrth python*. Here I had python3 -> python3.9

also which python3 should give /usr/bin/python3

3)Unlink python3: sudo unlink python3

4)Link to another version: sudo ln -s python3.8 python3 I had 3.8 but I guess other older version work too. n.b you can use this command to change also python and python2 links

Now python3 -V should give the new version

5)Uninstall terminator and reinstall

sudo apt-get remove --auto-remove terminator
sudo apt-get purge --auto-remove terminator
sudo apt install terminator

Now it should work. if you need python3 to be pyton3.9 you can edit /usr/bin/terminator and change #!/usr/bin/python3 to #!/usr/bin/python3.8 and then relink python3 to python3.9