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I'm new to Linux and am trying to set up Python / Django on my machine! I installed Python 3.3 from the source file and it was compiled into /usr/local/bin. Then I created a symbolic link between /usr/bin/python and /usr/local/bin/python3, so that whenever I invoke python from the command line it uses the latest version.

Now I am trying to install MySQL Python and I got the following output:

apt-get install python-mysqldb

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
python-mysqldb is already the newest version.
The following extra packages will be installed:
  apt-listchanges python-apt
Suggested packages:
  python-glade2 python-gtk2 python-apt-dbg python-vte python-apt-doc
The following packages will be upgraded:
  apt-listchanges python-apt
2 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 142 not upgraded.
3 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/394 kB of archives.
After this operation, 250 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges", line 28, in <module>
    import apt_pkg
ImportError: No module named 'apt_pkg'

Any ideas on how to fix this? Or any tips on how to clean up this install (if this one is too broken)?

user1881353
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    "I installed Python 3.3 from the source file" -- why? Not sure which OS you're on, but backports should be available and make life a lot easier. Ubuntu 12.04 PPA providing Python 3.3 is [here](https://launchpad.net/~python-dev/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=precise). – gertvdijk Dec 08 '12 at 00:38

1 Answers1

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Way too many packages in Debian still rely on Python 2.x. As a result, almost everyone needs Python 2.x to be installed.

Usually, the following is done to have both Python 2.x and 3.x:

  • /usr/bin/python refers to a Python 2.x binary
  • /usr/bin/python3 refers to a Python 3.x binary

To see what is the currently installed version of Python on your machine, run:

ls -l /usr/bin/python*

(results in e.g. /usr/bin/python2.7)

To remove the symlink: rm -i /usr/bin/python

To create the symlink: ln -s /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/python

gertvdijk
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  • More specifically, Django only has experimental support for Python 3: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/faq/install/#can-i-use-django-with-python-3 – Shane Madden Dec 08 '12 at 01:05
  • thanks so much -- that fixed it. i think it was too early for me to start using python 3.x – user1881353 Dec 11 '12 at 01:19