Pyodbc installation error on Ubuntu 16.04 with Sql Server installed

python sql-server ubuntu pyodbc unixodbc
Shubham Namdeo picture Shubham Namdeo · Dec 20, 2016 · Viewed 10.8k times · Source

I am trying to test my scripts for data migration from mssql-server to oracle server. For this, I have to install pyodbc python package for Ubuntu, it has the dependency of unixodbc. When I try to install unixodbc-dev using:

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev

It gives broken packages error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 unixodbc-dev : Depends: unixodbc (= 2.3.1-4.1)
                Depends: odbcinst1debian2 (= 2.3.1-4.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

But with aptitude (sudo aptitude install unixodbc-dev) it is installing and also removing some SQL server files due to which my SQL-server goes down.

Again on installing SQL server with this command:

sudo apt-get install mssql-server mssql-tools -y

it removes unixodbc:

Removing unixodbc-dev (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing unixodbc (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing libodbc1:amd64 (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing odbcinst (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing odbcinst1debian2:amd64 (2.3.1-4.1) ...

Hence again, I am left only with SQL-server and no unixodbc(pyodbc doesn't works). I understand that there is some dependency issue between both of the packages.

Is there is a way to Install both on the same machine or do I have to use 2 machines here?

Answer

Shubham Namdeo picture Shubham Namdeo · Jan 25, 2017

Finally, I've got the solution from Microsoft's website only. Here is the method for setting up unixodbc with mssql on Ubuntu 16.04:

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev-utf16

After this, I can easily install pyodbc with:

pip install pyodbc

There are listed ways on this Microsoft's webpage for using and installing the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server for Popular Linux systems.

Here is the easiest installation method for on Ubuntu 16.04 that I've found:

sudo su
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
exit
sudo apt-get update
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install msodbcsql mssql-tools
sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev-utf16 #this step is optional but recommended*

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