simplecv ubuntu 14.04 install - python-2.7

Question

I'm trying to install SimpleCV on a RaspberryPi 2 running Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. I don't believe this to be be specific to the Pi or even to Ubuntu, it is more a general question and I feel OK to ask here.
I'm following the directions at
https://github.com/sightmachine/SimpleCV/blob/develop/doc/HOWTO-Install%20on%20RaspberryPi.rst
When trying the first part of step 4 I get a long list of trace then a "memory error"
When trying the second part I get the following error
Collecting PIL (from -r requirements.txt (line 3))
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/requests/packages/urllib3/util/ssl_.py:90: InsecurePlatformWarning: A true SSLContext object is not available. This prevents urllib3 from configuring SSL appropriately and may cause certain SSL connections to fail. For more information, see https://urllib3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/security.html#insecureplatformwarning.
InsecurePlatformWarning
Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PIL (from -r requirements.txt (line 3)) (from versions: )
Some externally hosted files were ignored as access to them may be unreliable (use --allow-external PIL to allow).
No matching distribution found for PIL (from -r requirements.txt (line 3))
and breaking it further down I get an error trying to install PIL by itself (well, forcing it really, but apparently not hard enough...)
robert#furbot:~/Code/SimpleCV$ pip install --allow-external --allow-unverified PIL
Collecting PIL
/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/_vendor/requests/packages/urllib3/util/ssl_.py:90: InsecurePlatformWarning: A true SSLContext object is not available. This prevents urllib3 from configuring SSL appropriately and may cause certain SSL connections to fail. For more information, see https://urllib3.readthedocs.org/en/latest/security.html#insecureplatformwarning.
InsecurePlatformWarning
Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement PIL (from versions: )
Some externally hosted files were ignored as access to them may be unreliable (use --allow-external PIL to allow).
No matching distribution found for PIL
I notice that PIL is itself deprecated and wonder if there's a better way to do this ? The SSL error is common on this system it's a cause for concern but it's not really a mission critical exercise either. The goal is as said to install SimpleCV on a Ubuntu 14.04 system. I already have openCV compiled locally and it seems OK and I believe the system itself should be OK (I have a backup of its SD card...)
TIA
Rob

Answer 1

I ran into similar issues with installing PIL a few days ago on a Macbook. I ended up skipping that step altogether and proceeding with the other installs. When I tried to run the helloworld program, it threw a couple errors along the lines of "could not find x in PIL library," so I installed the pillow library instead, which was recommended in countless other SO questions related to PIL. It seemed to work fine after that. I know it's a different system from an RPi2, but I'd say give it a shot.
It would probably be easier here to follow the "install SimpleCV from source" instructions under step 4. Since it's looking for PIL in your requirements.txt, go ahead and edit that file to remove PIL from the list before running the line: sudo pip install -r requirements.txt. If that doesn't work, try replacing PIL with pillow.