ImportError: No module named backend_tkagg

I've seen this before, also on openSUSE (12.3). The fix is to edit the default matplotlibrc file.

Here's how you find where the default matplotlibrc file lives, and where it lives on my machine:

>>> import matplotlib
>>> matplotlib.matplotlib_fname()
'/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc'

The backend setting is the first configuration option in this file. Change it from TkAgg to Agg, or to some other backend you have installed on your system. The comments in the matplotlibrc file list all backends supported by matplotlib.

The backend specified in this file is only the default; you can still change it at runtime by adding the following two lines, before any other matplotlib import:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Agg")  # or whichever backend you wish to use

I use openSuse 13.1 and had the same error "ImportError: No module named backend_tkagg".

I solved it by using this suggestion: http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/416182-Python-matplolib.

I've installed the python-matplotlib-tk package, and now it is working just fine.

E.g. you can use: zypper install python-matplotlib-tk

I tried various solutions, only this works for me:

sudo pip install matplotlib --upgrade