Ubuntu: Can't setup virtualenv for python

Question

I'm using Ubuntu. I tried to follow the Deploying a Django on Amazon Elastic Beanstalk.

Rather than using yum, i used apt-get instead.

I followed every ahead steps well.

root@james-MacBookPro:/home/james# virtualenv --version
1.7.2
root@james-MacBookPro:/home/james# python --version
Python 2.7.6
root@james-MacBookPro:/home/james# apt-get install  python-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python-dev is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
root@james-MacBookPro:/home/james# apt-get install python2.7-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
python2.7-dev is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

But when i tried to create a virtual environment for django development, some things wrong. I typed virtualenv -p python2.6 /tmp/djangodev

root@james-MacBookPro:/home/james# virtualenv -p python2.7 /tmp/djangodev
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python2.7
New python executable in /tmp/djangodev/bin/python2.7
Not overwriting existing python script /tmp/djangodev/bin/python (you must use /tmp/djangodev/bin/python2.7)
Installing setuptools...................................
  Complete output from command /tmp/djangodev/bin/python2.7 -c "#!python
\"\"\"Bootstra...sys.argv[1:])


" /usr/local/lib/pytho...ols-0.6c11-py2.7.egg:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 279, in <module>
      File "<string>", line 240, in main
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1712, in main
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1700, in with_ei_usage
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1716, in <lambda>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/core.py", line 151, in setup
    dist.run_commands()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
    self.run_command(cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 971, in run_command
    cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/cmd.py", line 109, in ensure_finalized
    self.finalize_options()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 125, in finalize_options
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 1121, in _expand
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/cmd.py", line 312, in get_finalized_command
    cmd_obj.ensure_finalized()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/cmd.py", line 109, in ensure_finalized
    self.finalize_options()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv_support/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/install.py", line 32, in finalize_options
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/command/install.py", line 321, in finalize_options
    (prefix, exec_prefix) = get_config_vars('prefix', 'exec_prefix')
  File "/tmp/djangodev/lib/python2.7/distutils/__init__.py", line 85, in sysconfig_get_config_vars
    real_vars = old_get_config_vars(*args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 495, in get_config_vars
func()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 439, in _init_posix
    from _sysconfigdata import build_time_vars
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/_sysconfigdata.py", line 6, in <module>
    from _sysconfigdata_nd import *
ImportError: No module named _sysconfigdata_nd
----------------------------------------
...Installing setuptools...done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 2429, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 942, in main
    never_download=options.never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1052, create_environment
    search_dirs=search_dirs, never_download=never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 598, in install_setuptools
    search_dirs=search_dirs, never_download=never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 570, in _install_req
cwd=cwd)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1020, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /tmp/djangodev/bin/python2.7 -c "#!python
\"\"\"Bootstra...sys.argv[1:])



" /usr/local/lib/pytho...ols-0.6c11-py2.7.egg failed with error code 1

Can someone tell me what's wrong and how to fix it?

Answer 1

This is caused by a known bug in Ubuntu.

Fix this creating a softlink of module _sysconfigdata_nd.py in python2.7 dir:

cd /usr/lib/python2.7
sudo ln -s plat-x86_64-linux-gnu/_sysconfigdata_nd.py .

(or use

sudo ln -s plat-i386-linux-gnu/_sysconfigdata_nd.py .

if you are on an i386 system)