Fix Python – ImportError: libSM.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Question 1

When trying to import OpenCV, using import cv2 I get the following error:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/cv2/__init__.py in <module>()
      7 
      8 # make IDE's (PyCharm) autocompletion happy
----> 9 from .cv2 import *
     10 
     11 # wildcard import above does not import "private" variables like __version__

ImportError: libSM.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Not sure how to fix this – trying to play around with Google’s new Colaboratory tool. Notebook is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7-sJqBiyjCcRmFkMzl6cy1iN0k/view?usp=sharing

Question 2

This fixed the problem by having it as the first two lines of the script:

!pip install opencv-python
!apt update && apt install -y libsm6 libxext6
!apt-get install -y libxrender-dev

Question

Answer