Having trouble opening a virtual environment in python3.9

ponir

5/22/24, 4:17 PM

I have installed python3.9 through apt in my Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS. Then I was trying to create a new virtual environment that runs on 3.9. This is the process I did:

$ python3.9 -m venv /home/user1/py3.9
Error: Command '['/home/user1/py3.9/bin/python3.9', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 1.

To remedy this I tried upgrading pip, which raised an error regarding distutils. Here was the output of that:

$ python3.9 -m pip install --upgrade pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/runpy.py", line 188, in _run_module_as_main
    mod_name, mod_spec, code = _get_module_details(mod_name, _Error)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/runpy.py", line 147, in _get_module_details
    return _get_module_details(pkg_main_name, error)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.9/runpy.py", line 111, in _get_module_details
    __import__(pkg_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/__init__.py", line 29, in <module>
    from pip.utils import get_installed_distributions, get_prog
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/utils/__init__.py", line 23, in <module>
    from pip.locations import (
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip/locations.py", line 9, in <module>
    from distutils import sysconfig
ImportError: cannot import name 'sysconfig' from 'distutils' (/usr/lib/python3.9/distutils/__init__.py)

I then installed distutils using the command: sudo apt install python3.9-distutils, which was sucessful and after that I could upgrade pip. But I'm still having the same problem of returned non-zero exit status 1 if I try to create the virtual environment. I'm not sure what I did wrong. But I did install python3.11 in the past and could create virtual environment the same way IIRC. I'm not sure what to do at this point.

1 + 3

python

apt

environment

user535733

5/22/24, 4:35 PM

Warning: It's been a great five years with Ubuntu 18.04. But it's coming to an end: We will stop answering questions about Ubuntu 18.04 in nine days. Now might be a good time to migrate to a newer release of Ubuntu.

guiverc

5/23/24, 12:05 AM

Online tools like https://packages.ubuntu.com/ no longer provide details for anything older than 20.04 as the five years of support for *bionic* or 18.04 ended last month, so our ability to help is even more limited now. We'd need to have a *bionic* system around (to do enquiries at terminal) or have *devscripts* installed that allow searching of ESM releases such as 18.04 (*18.04 ESM official start date is 31-May-2023 so you're on-topic on this site until then*). I'd suggest planning your *release-upgrade* asap too.

ponir

5/23/24, 6:58 PM

Thanks a lot. I did work out my own solution eventually. I guess from my part it was more of an inexperience. Also, I think it doesn't matter what ubuntu I'm using. The problem/solution should be same.

Score:1

Ubuntu

ponir

5/23/24, 6:58 PM

Just installing python isn't enough. You have to to multiple steps:

sudo apt install python3.9
sudo apt install python3.9-distutils
sudo apt install python3.9-venv

Hopefully, after that everything will work as intended.

+ 2

user535733

5/23/24, 7:05 PM

Hmmm. `-distutils` should have been included with a stock install. Most users should simply install Ubuntu, then install `python3.x-venv`. That's all they need.

ponir

5/23/24, 7:09 PM

Yeah. Dev is probably not needed. But I needed that for some other pip install stuff later. I edited and deleted that line.

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