matplotlib won't work on ubuntu 10.10
Question: I'm having a problem getting matplotlib to work in ubuntu 10.10.

First I install the matplotlib using apt-get, and later I found that the
version is 0.99 and some examples on the official site just won't work. Then I
download the 1.01 version and install it without uninstalling the 0.99
version. To make the situation more specific, here is the configuration:

    
    
    BUILDING MATPLOTLIB
                matplotlib: 1.0.1
                    python: 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Sep 15 2010, 15:52:39)  [GCC
                            4.4.5]
                  platform: linux2
    
    REQUIRED DEPENDENCIES
                     numpy: 1.6.0b1
                 freetype2: 12.2.6
    
    OPTIONAL BACKEND DEPENDENCIES
                    libpng: 1.2.44
                   Tkinter: no
                            * Using default library and include directories for
                            * Tcl and Tk because a Tk window failed to open.
                            * You may need to define DISPLAY for Tk to work so
                            * that setup can determine where your libraries are
                            * located. Tkinter present, but header files are not
                            * found. You may need to install development
                            * packages.
                  wxPython: no
                            * wxPython not found
                pkg-config: looking for pygtk-2.0 gtk+-2.0
                            * Package pygtk-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config
                            * search path. Perhaps you should add the directory
                            * containing `pygtk-2.0.pc' to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH
                            * environment variable No package 'pygtk-2.0' found
                            * Package gtk+-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config
                            * search path. Perhaps you should add the directory
                            * containing `gtk+-2.0.pc' to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH
                            * environment variable No package 'gtk+-2.0' found
                            * You may need to install 'dev' package(s) to
                            * provide header files.
                      Gtk+: no
                            * Could not find Gtk+ headers in any of
                            * '/usr/local/include', '/usr/include', '.'
           Mac OS X native: no
                        Qt: no
                       Qt4: no
                     Cairo: 1.8.8
    
    OPTIONAL DATE/TIMEZONE DEPENDENCIES
                  datetime: present, version unknown
                  dateutil: 1.4.1
                      pytz: 2010b
    
    OPTIONAL USETEX DEPENDENCIES
                    dvipng: no
               ghostscript: 8.71
                     latex: no
                   pdftops: 0.14.3
    
    [Edit setup.cfg to suppress the above messages]
    

and now i can import matplotlib but once i run the example code, it just
terminated and I get no results. I tried to 'clean install' several times,
which means I delete all the files include the .matplotlib and the matplotlib
directory under dist-package, but I still can't get things done.

What makes weirder is that after I reinstall the 0.99 version, it works pretty
well.

Any ideas?


Answer: Ben Gamari has [packaged](https://launchpad.net/~bgamari/+archive/matplotlib-
unofficial) matplotlib 1.0 for Ubuntu.

