ImportError('secp256k1 library not found')

[tschaboo]

I installed JoinMarket on a fresh Ubuntu 20.04LTS x64 installation according to docs/INSTALL.md

When running "wallet-tool.py generate" as instructed in docs/USAGE.md I get the abovementioned ImportError.

I tried a pip install secp256k1 which failed with a very long error message.

[AdamISZ]

First step: did you not run ./install.sh as per the README, and if not, why not? (not criticizing, but it's important to understand people's process here).
Re: pip install secp256k1 yes, that is not what's needed here, it's not the package we're using.

[tschaboo]

Hello,
thanks for the quick reply.

I read the README some weeks ago. Yesterday I just googled "install JoinMarket" which brought me directly to the INSTALL.md which I followed, believing that this is the preferred method. So, maybe include the ./install.sh-method in that document too?

I tried ./install.sh now - saying no to the Qt option - and it finished with errors
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenv.seed.via_app_data' Joinmarket virtualenv could not be setup. Exiting.

[AdamISZ]

Hi, so thanks, I have just spent a short while looking more carefully at the INSTALL.md Linux instructions vs the install.sh script, and it's now pretty clear to me that there is a step missing in INSTALL.md (it should have been altered after #536 to account for the extra libsecp dependency; I only altered the install.sh script to account for this, but not those instructions).

So in short yes you would be much better running install.sh as it handles all the needed steps.

The second, separate error you mention:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenv.seed.via_app_data'

I have never heard of anything like this. A quick google reveals this: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63491221/modulenotfounderror-no-module-named-virtualenv-seed-embed-via-app-data-when-i

[PulpCattel]

I think this was what I was referring to here and part of the problem for @pettycake in #763.

Btw, what about adding also how to validate the signature? There is no mention of this in INSTALL.md for Linux nor Mac; I can imagine in a scenario like this, where the user lands directly into that page, how this could not be obvious at all.

Maybe, since ./install.sh is the preferred way, a note/warning/mention could be add at the top of INSTALL.md saying that the README installation method is recommended.

[AdamISZ]

@PulpCattel yep absolutely, and as you said in this comment specifically, the problem is a missing libsecp install step (as i mentioned above, this is a missing addition from #536). I think I'll add that step into the INSTALL.md step in a PR today. And also the small warning sentence as per your suggestion.
Meanwhile, both in that Issue #763 and now in this one, we are ending up discussion multiple different problems :) I don't know what's going on with this virtualenv thing, that's clearly an entirely separate problem.