A friend of mine recently started using Interactive Brokers through Python on Linux, and referenced the installation guide in my previous note. He wrote a much better, clearer set of instructions. Python is a really good language to code in and Linux is easier to work in and has less overhead processes than Windows.

percent sign (%) lines are comments, other lines are to be entered in a terminal.

%-------------------------------------------------------------------------
%---
%1. Run Ubuntu 9.10 Installer
%---

%---
%2. Update ubuntu 9.10 with the latest everything
%---

sudo apt-get update

%there were 159 MB of updates on 12-17-2009

% If you have any problems while running the update, run this to resume the
% update (important if you are downloading a few hundred MB of updates).

sudo dpkg --configure -a

%install flash

sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree


%---
%3. Download trader workstation
%---
%URL:
%http://interactivebrokers.com/en/control/systemstandalone.php?os=unix&ib_entity=llc
%
% Or you can just run the following command
%

sudo wget http://www.interactivebrokers.com/download/unixmacosx.jar

%run this in your home dir or your downloads dir and it will download the file

%---
%4.Install Python, using the following commands
%---

sudo apt-get build-dep python-numpy python python-scipy python-gtk2
python-imaging ipython

%this is about 326 MB as of 12-17-2009

sudo apt-get install python-numpy python-profiler python-gtk2
python-scipy python-matplotlib python-matplotlib-doc ipython pychecker
pylint pyflakes python-doc python-examples python-imaging
python-scientific python-serial python-docutils python-glade2

%this is about 80 MB as of 12-17-2009

%---
%5.Install and Configure Java and then Install and Configure Trader
Workstation (TWS)
%---

%install the java runtime using the following commands:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts

%install the Java Dev Kit will give you the jar command necessary to install TWS

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk

%test the java installation with this command

java -version

%make a directory for IB TWS

mkdir /home/YOUR_USERNAME/IBJts


%move the IB download from the download directory to the home directory

cp ./unixmaxosx.jar /home/YOUR_USERNAME/

%extract the TWS files

jar xf unixmacosx.jar

%install TWS

java -cp jts.jar:pluginsupport.jar:riskfeed.jar:hsqldb.jar:jcommon-1.0.12.jar:jfreechart-1.0.9.jar:jhall.jar:other.jar:rss.jar
-Xmx256M jclient.LoginFrame .


%---
%6.Install IBpy
%---

%download ibpy wget IbPy-0.7.6-9.51 (current as of writing 12-17-2009)

wget http://ibpy.googlecode.com/files/IbPy-0.7.6-9.51.tar.gz

%extract

tar xzf IbPy-0.7.6-9.51.tar.gz

%go to the directory

cd IbPy-0.7.6-9.51

%setup

sudo python setup.py install

%run TWS

java -cp jts.jar:pluginsupport.jar:riskfeed.jar:hsqldb.jar:jcommon-1.0.12.jar:jfreechart-1.0.9.jar:jhall.jar:other.jar:rss.jar
-Xmx256M jclient.LoginFrame .


%run IBpy demo

python IbPy-0.7.6-9.51/demo/example_opt