No module named _sqlite3

Question

I am trying to run a Django app on my VPS running Debian 5. When I run a demo app, it comes back with this error:

  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in     import_module
    __import__(name)

  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/db/backends/sqlite3/base.py", line 30, in <module>
    raise ImproperlyConfigured, "Error loading %s: %s" % (module, exc)

ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading either pysqlite2 or sqlite3 modules (tried in that     order): No module named _sqlite3

Looking at the Python install, it gives the same error:

Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, May 12 2009, 07:46:31) 
[GCC 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.1-21)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sqlite3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/sqlite3/__init__.py", line 24, in <module>
    from dbapi2 import *
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/sqlite3/dbapi2.py", line 27, in <module>
    from _sqlite3 import *
ImportError: No module named _sqlite3
>>>

Reading on the web, I learn that Python 2.5 should come with all the necessary SQLite wrappers included. Do I need to reinstall Python, or is there another way to get this module up and running?

Answer 1

Is the python-pysqlite2 package installed?

sudo apt-get install python-pysqlite2

Answer 2

My _sqlite3.so is in /usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_sqlite3.so. Judging from your paths, you should have the file /usr/local/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_sqlite3.so.

Try the following:

find /usr/local -name _sqlite3.so

If the file isn't found, something may be wrong with your Python installation. If it is, make sure the path it's installed to is in the Python path. In the Python shell,

import sys
print sys.path

In my case, /usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload is in the list, so it's able to find /usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload/_sqlite3.so.

Answer 3

Checking your settings.py file. Did you not just write "sqlite" instead of "sqlite3" for the database engine?

Answer 4

I had the same problem (building python2.5 from source on Ubuntu Lucid), and import sqlite3 threw this same exception. I've installed libsqlite3-dev from the package manager, recompiled python2.5, and then the import worked.