It is a best practice to have a separate sandbox python from the system python. The guide below probably is the simplest way to install opencv inside virtualenv. The drawback though is that it won’t install the latest opencv. But if you just need something quick to get things running, the following probably is sufficient.
- Setup virtualenv
sudo apt install python-pip sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenv -p python3 ~/venv3 # create virtualenv named venv3
- Install OpenCV and OpenCV-contrib
source ~/venv3/bin/activate # enter virtualenv venv3 pip install pip -U # update pip pip install opencv-python opencv-contrib-python
Above we assumed the Python3 environment for the sandbox. If you prefer Python2 instead, just change
virtualenv -p python3 ~/venv3
to
virtualenv -p python2 ~/venv2
and use
source ~/venv2/bin/activate
to enter the virtual environment instead.