GNS3 on Debian GNU/Linux

This page describes installation of GNS3 version 2.1.2 on Debian GNU/Linux, in my case it is release testing.

Installation

Add to sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gns3/ppa/ubuntu/ zesty main

Update the packages list index
```
# apt-get update
```
Install gns3-gui and gns3-server
```
# apt-get install gns3-gui gns3-server
```

Workaround

Check symlink of python binary
```
# ln -s /usr/bin/python
```
GNS3 uses Python 3, so Python binary should link to python3. If not, create symlink to python3
```
# ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python
```
First you need to remove the old symlink to python2
Go to /usr/share/gns3/gns3-gui
```
# cd /usr/share/gns3/gns3-gui/
```
Run source to activate virtualenv
```
# source bin/activate
```
Install gns3-gui from pip
```
# pip install gns3-gui
```
Install PyQt5 including PyQt5-sip from pip
```
# pip install PyQt5
```

Error messages

No gns3-gui lib

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gns3", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3019, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3003, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3032, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 655, in _build_master
    ws.require(__requires__)
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 963, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/usr/share/gns3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 849, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'gns3-gui==2.1.2' distribution was not found and is required by the application

PyQt5-sip lib needs to be updated

Fail update installation: the sip module implements API v12.0 to v12.3 but the PyQt5.QtCore module requires API v12.5
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/gns3", line 7, in <module>
    from gns3.main import main
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/gns3/main.py", line 52, in <module>
    from gns3.qt import QtCore, QtWidgets
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/gns3/qt/__init__.py", line 36, in <module>
    from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui, QtNetwork, QtWidgets, Qt
RuntimeError: the sip module implements API v12.0 to v12.3 but the PyQt5.QtCore module requires API v12.5