[Python] Pip exits when installing build dependencies for pygame-ce

I had pygame (not ce) on my Debian system and then updated it to pygame-ce using pip install —-upgrade pygame-ce and it worked fine, installing pygame-ce==2.5.2 . There were some more recent updates since and I decided to update pygame-ce again using the same command. I am using python 3.9.2 and pip 25.1.1 . I got a similar error trying to install it on windows but never this issue on my Linux box. It looks like there is no library portmidi which it apparently needs, but I tried running sudo apt install portmidi portmidi-dev but apparently neither of those packages exist. I don’t know where pip and/or meson is building pygame.

Full pip output:

$ pip install --upgrade pygame-ce
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://www.piwheels.org/simple
Requirement already satisfied: pygame-ce in /usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages (2.5.2)
Collecting pygame-ce
Using cached pygame_ce-2.5.5.tar.gz (5.8 MB)
Installing build dependencies ... done
Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
Installing backend dependencies ... done
Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> [34 lines of output]
+ meson setup /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1 /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1/.mesonpy-qmbs8ea0 -Dbuildtype=release -Db_ndebug=if-release -Db_vscrt=md --native-file=/tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1/.mesonpy-qmbs8ea0/meson-python-native-file.ini
The Meson build system
Version: 1.7.0
Source dir: /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1
Build dir: /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1/.mesonpy-qmbs8ea0
Build type: native build
Program python found: YES
../meson_options.txt:27: WARNING: Project does not target a minimum version but uses feature deprecated since '1.1.0': "boolean option" keyword argument "value" of type str. use a boolean, not a string
../meson_options.txt:31: WARNING: Project does not target a minimum version but uses feature deprecated since '1.1.0': "boolean option" keyword argument "value" of type str. use a boolean, not a string
../meson_options.txt:35: WARNING: Project does not target a minimum version but uses feature deprecated since '1.1.0': "boolean option" keyword argument "value" of type str. use a boolean, not a string
Project name: pygame_ce
Project version: 2.5.5
C compiler for the host machine: cc (gcc 10.2.1 "cc (Raspbian 10.2.1-6+rpi1) 10.2.1 20210110")
C linker for the host machine: cc ld.bfd 2.35.2
Cython compiler for the host machine: cython (cython 3.0.11)
Host machine cpu family: arm
Host machine cpu: arm
Program python found: YES
Program python found: YES (/usr/bin/python3)
Found pkg-config: YES (/usr/bin/pkg-config) 0.29.2
Run-time dependency python found: YES 3.9
Has header "Python.h" with dependency python-3.9: YES
Run-time dependency sdl2 found: YES 2.0.14
Run-time dependency sdl2_image found: YES 2.0.5
Run-time dependency sdl2_mixer found: YES 2.0.4
Run-time dependency sdl2_ttf found: YES 2.0.15
Run-time dependency freetype2 found: YES 23.4.17
Found CMake: /usr/bin/cmake (3.18.4)
WARNING: CMake Toolchain: Failed to determine CMake compilers state
Run-time dependency portmidi found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)

../meson.build:302:25: ERROR: C shared or static library 'portmidi' not found

A full log can be found at /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/pygame-ce_1fb067b21b694b7e8cf6cc8e4fdaa8b1/.mesonpy-qmbs8ea0/meson-logs/meson-log.txt
[end of output]

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.


There appears not to be any file at /tmp/pip-install-7cxt5bz1/.../meson-logs/meson-log.txt .

Continue reading...