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.

1. Add to sources.list

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

2. Update the packages list index

   # apt-get update

3. Install gns3-gui and gns3-server

   # apt-get install gns3-gui gns3-server

• 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

• 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