Plone - error while trying to run bootstrap.py as I attempt to start from scratch

Question

Ok, so I bought Professional Plone 4 Development and I am now trying to work through the initial setup. Here is what I have done so far:

First, I created a virtual environment called pl and a directory for this project, also called pl.

Second, I used pip to install PIL in the pl virtual environment. It appears to have worked.

Third, I created a file called buildout.cfg in the pl directory. It's contents are as follows:

[buildout]
extends = http://dist.plone.org/releases/4.2/versions.cfg
parts = instance
[instance]
recipe = plone.recipe.zope2instance
user = admin:admin
eggs = Plone

(I took this buildout.cfg file directly from the Plone 4 book from the section titled "A Minimum Buildout" on page 36.)

Fourth, I downloaded the bootstrap.py file at this location - http://svn.plone.org/svn/plone/buildouts/plone-coredev/branches/4.2/bootstrap.py - and placed it in my pl directory -- per the book's instructions.

Fifth, From my pl directory, with the pl virtual environment activated, I ran the command python bootstrap.py --distribute

And then I got the following error:

Downloading http://pypi.python.org/packages/source/d/distribute/distribute-0.6.29.tar.gz
Extracting in /var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmp97GJFJ
Now working in /var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmp97GJFJ/distribute-0.6.29
Building a Distribute egg in /var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40
/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/distribute-0.6.29-py2.7.egg
While:
  Initializing.

An internal error occured due to a bug in either zc.buildout or in a
recipe being used:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/buildout.py", line 1682, in main
    user_defaults, windows_restart, command)
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/buildout.py", line 198, in __init__
    data['buildout'].copy(), override))
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/buildout.py", line 1356, in _open
    eresult = _open(base, extends.pop(0), seen, dl_options, override)
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/buildout.py", line 1306, in _open
    path, is_temp = download(filename)
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/download.py", line 96, in __call__
    local_path, is_temp = self.download(url, md5sum, path)
  File "/private/var/folders/xk/5xt9s5vd4bqd731qdkmxkxyr0000gn/T/tmpvHtk40/zc.buildout-1.4.4-py2.7.egg/zc/buildout/download.py", line 173, in download
    tmp_path, headers = urllib.urlretrieve(url, tmp_path)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 91, in urlretrieve
    return _urlopener.retrieve(url, filename, reporthook, data)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 237, in retrieve
    fp = self.open(url, data)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 205, in open
    return getattr(self, name)(url)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 356, in open_http
    return self.http_error(url, fp, errcode, errmsg, headers)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 373, in http_error
    return self.http_error_default(url, fp, errcode, errmsg, headers)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/urllib.py", line 379, in http_error_default
    raise IOError, ('http error', errcode, errmsg, headers)
IOError: ('http error', 404, 'Not Found', )

In case you're wondering, I'm using python 2.7.2 and pip freeze outputs the following:

PIL==1.1.7
wsgiref==0.1.2

Answer 1

Try changing the URL in your buildout to:

http://dist.plone.org/release/4.2/versions.cfg

Instead of

http://dist.plone.org/releases/4.2/versions.cfg

It looks like the wrong URL is causing a IOError: ('http error', 404, 'Not Found', )

Also, secondarily, for step 4 try running:

bin/python bootstrap.py --distribute

(the bin/ is important so that you're definitely launching the virtualenv version of python). Your traceback suggests that running 'python' by itself is calling the system python (note all the paths that mention '/System/Library/Frameworks'.