Plugins, Again, lastgenre, replaygain in particular

[pprjack]

Okay, I have successfully installed beets via
pipx install beets
on my Debian 12 system, replaygain and lastgenre are essential in my opinion.
I have tried to install according to 'Documentation' BUT,
pipx install "beets[lastgenre]"
FAILS, and I have been unable to find information on how to install lastgenre, replaygain other than vague references to installing beets in a docker container where it is claimed they are included in the default install?
Is something broken? Am I doing something WRONG? I would prefer not to use Docker for this but I am open to it if that is the only way.
Can anyone here please shed some light on how this is supposed to work?
or failing that maybe some good instructions to get a docker beets install up and running with an explanation about how this might be a superior method?
The existing documentation seems to be out of date or too vague when it comes to plugins. Am I the only one?

[RollingStar]

relevant: #5694

I can't speak to this specifically, but Debian and Python don't mix well. You should probably choose between having Debian manage your Python environment (limiting your plugin options) or managing it yourself with tools such as poetry and pipx. Docker is another option for having a python environment outside of debian's management.

Can you post the message you get when you try to do pipx install "beets[lastgenre]" or whatever you're trying to do?

I was playing with docker. these links may be helpful (I believe other users have their production beets installs inside docker. for me this was just a test.)

#4910

https://discourse.beets.io/t/diary-of-beets-on-arm-odroid-hc4-armbian/1993/2

https://discourse.beets.io/t/docker-container-benefits/2019

[pprjack]

I have since removed all beets, pipx, etc. and upgraded my install to Debian 13 (Trixie).
I find that I can now apt install beets version 2.1.0 from the repository and several of the plugins seem to be installed as dependencies while others are referenced in the list of suggested packages and I can install them from that list (or just --install-suggests to indiscriminately install all).
This has gotten me to a place where I think I can start to work with beets and get started cleaning up my music library.
I do not understand your claim that Debian and Python do not play well together. That does not make any sense to me. I think what you meant to say is that Python is a pain to use no matter what OS you may prefer.
I may investigate the Docker install method in the future but right now I just do not understand Docker well enough. I much prefer the Proxmox approach to containers.

[RollingStar]

I have this error on Proxmox (Debian) and I've seen similar errors in other Debian environments. Maybe I'm wrong but my experience has been (on any system, not just debian) pick one python management method and stick with it. Windows (my main OS) is more forgiving because it doesn't have a package manager, therefor, it doesn't have a canonical python3 the way Debian's apt does.

pip3 install --upgrade my-pip-package
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
install.

If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
sure you have python3-full installed.

If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.

See /usr/share/doc/python3.11/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.