pygame.error: No available video device

Question

I have this setup:

 $ python -V
Python 2.7.2+
 $ python -c \"import pygame; print pygame.__version__\"
1.9.1release

When I run a pygame scr

Answer 1

Wild guess - is the DISPLAY environment variable set and/or required by the library, and not available? This could be the case if you're ssh-ing into the Linux machine you're running this on without providing the -X option.

Answer 2

This should work but comment if it doesn't. It might only affect Windows XP.

import os
os.environ['SDL_VIDEODRIVER']='windlib'

Good luck. Hope this works.

Answer 3

Try the following:

import pygame
from pygame.locals import *
pygame.init()

Answer 4

On Linux you can solve the problem using x11.

Verify that your SDL was built with x11 support, otherwise build it yourself only after that you added some libraries in this way:

sudo apt install xorg-dev libx11-dev libgl1-mesa-glx

Maybe xorg-dev already installs libx11-dev

Build SDL from source and enjoy

Answer 5

If you are running Pygame on a UNIX system, like a Linux server, try using a DummyVideoDriver:

import os
os.environ["SDL_VIDEODRIVER"] = "dummy"

Answer 6

From similar experience the most likely problem is something is wrong with one of your SDL packages. Try running the following.

import pygame
pygame.init()
pygame.display.list_modes()

If you get back an empty list, it's definitely because of the packages. Try reinstalling them.

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