Obtain source code from http://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlib/ For ASAP 2.1 you need at version >= 0.87 Newer versions of matplotlib require "numpy" version 0.9.8 (Not >= 1.0). This is available from http://www.numpy.org Make sure you get version 0.9.8. To install numpy {{{ cd /some/dir tar zxvf ~/numpy-0.9.8.tar.gz cd numpy-0.9.8 python setup.py build python setup.py install }}} To install matplotlib {{{ cd /some/dir tar zxvf ~/matplotlib-0.87.4.tar.gz tar zxvf ~/matplotlib-0.87.4.tar.gz cd matplotlib-0.87.4 python setup.py build python setup.py install }}} Please refer to the o/s [wiki:ASAPInstall notes] for suggested packages which need to be installed to compile matplotlib