python easy_install or pip errors about sysconfig

Question

somehow the installation of python is broken in my linux OEL 6.9.

pip or easy_install are broken and I cannot do anything.

i get the same error on both sides:

# easy_install
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/easy_install", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-39.2.0-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 947, in <module>
    class Environment(object):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-39.2.0-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 951, in Environment
    self, search_path=None, platform=get_supported_platform(),
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-39.2.0-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 180, in get_supported_platform
    plat = get_build_platform()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-39.2.0-py2.6.egg/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 380, in get_build_platform
    from sysconfig import get_platform
ImportError: No module named sysconfig

I removed python-setuptools to no avail.

I think i was trying to update latest version of pyOpenSSL and it crashed and cannot fix.

we are running Oracle enterprise Linux 6.6 in a VM.

how to fix it without resorting to installing python 2.7 which is not included in the official repos

thank you

Answer 1

the solution was:

remove completely python-setuptools and delete the folder from /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/.

then remove manually from the site-packages folder the module: pyOpenSSL it was after trying to upgrade it that everything went south.

rm -rf pyOpenSSL-18.0.0-py2.6.egg/

install back from yum python-setuptools now pip list can list the modules and no more errors with easy_install either.

Answer 2

Ok, so setuptools should be installed now - can you confirm you have the pkg_resources.py module? Run ls /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py; echo $?.

if this command outputs 0, remove the pkg_resources package: sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources/.

Remove the dir only when the pkg_resources module is found! After that, pip should work again: run smth like pip list to check that.

Else

run:

python3 -m ensurepip --default-pip

pip3 install [package]