py2app tracebacks with ModuleNotFoundError for PyGObject hello world

Question

I'm attempting to bundle up a test program (an "hello world") as a macOS app using py2app.

The error I get is:

/Applications/hello.app/Contents/MacOS/hello
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Applications/hello.app/Contents/Resources/__boot__.py", line 101, in <module>
    _run()
  File "/Applications/hello.app/Contents/Resources/__boot__.py", line 84, in _run
    exec(compile(source, path, "exec"), globals(), globals())
  File "/Applications/hello.app/Contents/Resources/hello.py", line 5, in <module>
    import gi
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "gi/__init__.pyc", line 40, in <module>
  File "<frozen zipimport>", line 259, in load_module
  File "gi/_gi.pyc", line 14, in <module>
  File "gi/_gi.pyc", line 10, in __load
  File "imp.pyc", line 342, in load_dynamic
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'gi._error'
2021-06-08 10:19:34.605 hello[41423:3966514] hello Error
make: *** [go] Error 255

The program, which runs fine outside of py2app, is:

$ cat hello.py
cmd output started 2021 Tue Jun 08 10:20:44 AM PDT
#!/usr/bin/env python3

"""Just say hi."""

import gi
gi.require_version("Gtk", "3.0")
from gi.repository import Gtk  # noqa

window = Gtk.Window(title="Title")
button = Gtk.Button(label='Hello World!')
button.show()
button.connect("clicked", Gtk.main_quit)
window.add(button)
window.show()
window.connect("destroy", Gtk.main_quit)
Gtk.main()

My setup.py looks like:

$ cat setup.py
cmd output started 2021 Tue Jun 08 10:21:27 AM PDT
"""
This is a setup.py script derived from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5608080/how-to-specify-py2app-icon .

Usage:
    python3 setup.py py2app
"""

from setuptools import setup

app = ['hello.py']
options = {
    'iconfile': 'icon/hello.png',
}

setup(
    app=app,
    options={'py2app': options},
    setup_requires=['py2app'],
)

And here's the Makefile I've been using, which includes creation of the icon file:

$ cat Makefile
cmd output started 2021 Tue Jun 08 10:22:25 AM PDT
go: clean
    ./hello.py
    pbmtext 'hello!' | pnmtopng > icon/hello.png
    python3 setup.py py2app
    (cd dist && tar cflS - hello.app) | (cd /Applications && tar xvfp -)
    /Applications/hello.app/Contents/MacOS/hello

clean:
    rm -rf build dist
    rm -f icon/hello.png

I'm using homebrew python 3.9.5 and py2app==0.24 on macOS Big Sur (11.4). py2app was installed with pip.

I suspect this situation calls for a "recipe", but I don't see one for PyGObject in the py2app documentation.

I've googled about this for hours, but no luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Oddly, rebooting the OS helped, along with the already-tried:

options = {
    'iconfile': 'icon/hello.png',
    'packages': ['gi'],
}

Now I get a different error - a segfault. But I think I probably cleared a hurdle.