Error after installing Django (supposed PATH or PYTHONPATH "error")

Question

Hi all,

I guess this is a PATH/PYTHONPATH error, but my attempts failed so far to make django working.

System is Ubuntu 10.04, 64bit:

mx:~/webapps$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=10.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=lucid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 10.04 LTS"

Python version: 2.6.5:

@mx:~/webapps$ python -V
Python 2.6.5

When I run django-admin.py, the following happens:

mx:~/webapps$ django-admin.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/django-admin.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.core import management
ImportError: No module named django.core

Similar when I import django in python shell:

mx:~/webapps$ python
Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:09:56)
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named django
>>> quit()

More details:

mx:~/webapps$ python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()"

/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages

Within python shell:

Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:09:56)
[GCC 4.4.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import sys
>>> print sys.path
['', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/bin', '/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django', '/home/petra/webapps', '/usr/lib/python2.6', '/usr/lib/python2.6/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-old', '/usr/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/PIL', '/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6']

django-admin.py can be found here:

mx:~/webapps$ locate django-admin.py
~/install/sources/Django-1.2.1/build/lib.linux-i686-2.6/django/bin/django-admin.py
~/install/sources/Django-1.2.1/build/scripts-2.6/django-admin.py
~/install/sources/Django-1.2.1/django/bin/django-admin.py
/usr/local/bin/django-admin.py
/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/bin/django-admin.py
/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/bin/django-admin.pyc

and in the end this doesn't help:

export PYTHONPATH="/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django:$PYTHONPATH"

nor this:

export PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django:$PYTHONPATH"

How to solve this !?

Thanks all in advance! :)

Answer 1

You python path seems to be screwed up.

If you want to import module in Python, then the path to module must be in sys.path. For instance if you want to import a module located at

/long/path/to/module

then you must have

/long/path/to

in the sys.path, and not /long/path/to/module!

Since you django install seems to be installed in /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages, then the following should fix your problem:

export PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages:$PYTHONPATH"

That doesn't explain why you did not have that path in sys.path in the first place, though...

Answer 2

After spending hours and hours in CLI :) I have finally found the solution. The reason django-admin.py wasn't able to execute was access permission of the /usr/local/lib directory, actually,lack of owner's execute permission.

So, one: sudo chmod 711 /usr/local/lib solves the django-admin.py execution problem for ever :)