Creating an OSX PyQt app using Pyinstaller 2, PyQt4 and Qt5 - macos

Question

I am trying to package a PyQt program for OSX using PyInstaller 2, where PyQt4 (4.10) has been built against Qt 5.0.2 (from Git). The following simple example doesn't work.
import sys
from PyQt4.QtGui import QApplication, QMessageBox
def main():
print "Hello"
a = QApplication(sys.argv)
m = QMessageBox(QMessageBox.Information, "Title", "Hello")
m.exec_()
if __name__=="__main__":
main()
Spec file generated using pyinstaller-2.0/utils/MakeSpec.py and modified to add the BUNDLE class.
a = Analysis(['hello.py'],
pathex=['/Users/glenn/rp/src/demo'],
hiddenimports=[],
hookspath=None)
pyz = PYZ(a.pure)
exe = EXE(pyz,
a.scripts,
exclude_binaries=1,
name=os.path.join('build/pyi.darwin/hello', 'hello'),
debug=False,
strip=None,
upx=True,
console=False )
coll = COLLECT(exe,
a.binaries,
a.zipfiles,
a.datas,
strip=None,
upx=True,
name=os.path.join('dist', 'hello'))
app = BUNDLE(coll,
name=os.path.join('dist', 'hello.app'),
appname="Hello",
version = '0.1'
)
Packaging command
> python pyinstaller.py --windowed hello.spec
Running the binary directly from the terminal gives this output before it crashes:
$ ./dist/hello.app/Contents/MacOS/hello
Hello
Failed to load platform plugin "cocoa". Available platforms are:
Abort trap: 6
and this is the stack trace:
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
abort() called
Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x9a671a6a __pthread_kill + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x93163b2f pthread_kill + 101
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x9319a4ec abort + 168
3 QtCore 0x03db156b qt_message_fatal(QtMsgType, QMessageLogContext const&, QString const&) + 11
4 QtCore 0x03db19df QMessageLogger::fatal(char const*, ...) const + 63
5 QtGui 0x068abceb QGuiApplicationPrivate::createPlatformIntegration() + 3547
6 QtGui 0x068abd16 QGuiApplicationPrivate::createEventDispatcher() + 38
7 QtCore 0x03f4f2c4 QCoreApplication::init() + 100
8 QtCore 0x03f4f23b QCoreApplication::QCoreApplication(QCoreApplicationPrivate&) + 59
9 QtGui 0x068aa0d0 QGuiApplication::QGuiApplication(QGuiApplicationPrivate&) + 32
10 QtWidgets 0x06c695de QApplication::QApplication(int&, char**, int) + 238
11 PyQt4.QtGui.so 0x06394454 init_QApplication + 196
12 sip.so 0x007bc7d5 sipSimpleWrapper_init + 266
13 Python 0x0385c174 type_call + 340
14 Python 0x0380d401 PyObject_Call + 97
15 Python 0x0389c093 PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 10131
16 Python 0x038a0490 fast_function + 192
17 Python 0x0389beae PyEval_EvalFrameEx + 9646
18 Python 0x038998b2 PyEval_EvalCodeEx + 1922
19 Python 0x03899127 PyEval_EvalCode + 87
20 Python 0x038be06e PyRun_StringFlags + 126
21 Python 0x038bdfb1 PyRun_SimpleStringFlags + 81
22 Python 0x038bf619 PyRun_SimpleString + 25
23 hello 0x00003240 runScripts + 240
24 hello 0x0000280a main + 442
25 hello 0x00001eb9 _start + 224
26 hello 0x00001dd8 start + 40
The issue appears to be that it can't find the libqcocoa.dylib plugin. This is not surprising as it is not packaged. Is that the actual issue here and do I need to include this plugin? If so where does it need to go? I have tried putting it in demo.app/Contents/plugins but that doesn't help.

Answer 1

The right place to put libqcocoa.dylib is in Contents/MacOS/qt4_plugins/platforms:
extralibs = [("qt4_plugins/platforms/libqcocoa.dylib", "/path/to/libqcocoa.dylib", "BINARY")
]
coll = COLLECT(exe,
a.binaries + extralibs,
a.zipfiles,
a.datas,
strip=None,
upx=False,
name=os.path.join('dist', 'hello'))
The app now starts but the dialog window never appears. Edit: This is because PyInstaller (v 2.0) adds LSBackgroundOnly=true to the apps Info.plist. Removing this allows the window to show.

Answer 2

Try adding (but changed for PyQt):
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
At least that works for me (PySide 1.1.1, Qt 4.8.1, latest dev Pyinstaller, OSX 10.7.5, with no changes to the spec file and --onefile --windowed arguments to pyinstaller.) And without this snippet, it also crashes for me.
I suppose that pulls in more dependencies.
Found this in another answer.