Pyodbc installation error on Ubuntu 16.04 with Sql Server installed

Question

I am trying to test my scripts for data migration from mssql-server to oracle server. For this, I have to install pyodbc python package for Ubuntu, it has the dependency of unixodbc. When I try to install unixodbc-dev using:

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev

It gives broken packages error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 unixodbc-dev : Depends: unixodbc (= 2.3.1-4.1)
                Depends: odbcinst1debian2 (= 2.3.1-4.1) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

But with aptitude (sudo aptitude install unixodbc-dev) it is installing and also removing some SQL server files due to which my SQL-server goes down.

Again on installing SQL server with this command:

sudo apt-get install mssql-server mssql-tools -y

it removes unixodbc:

Removing unixodbc-dev (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing unixodbc (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing libodbc1:amd64 (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing odbcinst (2.3.1-4.1) ...
Removing odbcinst1debian2:amd64 (2.3.1-4.1) ...

Hence again, I am left only with SQL-server and no unixodbc(pyodbc doesn't works). I understand that there is some dependency issue between both of the packages.

Is there is a way to Install both on the same machine or do I have to use 2 machines here?

Answer 1

Finally, I've got the solution from Microsoft's website only. Here is the method for setting up unixodbc with mssql on Ubuntu 16.04:

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev-utf16

After this, I can easily install pyodbc with:

pip install pyodbc

There are listed ways on this Microsoft's webpage for using and installing the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server for Popular Linux systems.

---

Here is the easiest installation method for on Ubuntu 16.04 that I've found:

sudo su
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/16.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
exit
sudo apt-get update
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install msodbcsql mssql-tools
sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev-utf16 #this step is optional but recommended*

Answer 2

I do not have Sql server installed but when I want to install pyodbc at new machine, I can't install it as well. Someone suggest the following (I can't exactly tell where I find it):

sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev
sudo pip install pyodbc