Why can't `virtualenv` find `pkg_resources`?

Question

I'm trying to use virtualenv in Ubuntu to install a local virtual Python environment. When I run the shell command:

$ virtualenv ./virt_python

It throws an exception that it can't import pkg_resources. But when I open a Python shell and from pkg_resources import load_entry_point it runs fine. For reference, the complete stacktrace is below.

$ virtualenv ./virt_python
New python executable in ./virt_python/bin/python
Installing setuptools............done.
Installing pip.......
  Complete output from command /home/rpsharp/local/...hon/bin/easy_install /usr/local/lib/pytho...pport/pip-1.1.tar.gz:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/rpsharp/local/workspace/invest-natcap.invest-3/virt_python/bin/easy_install", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
ImportError: No module named pkg_resources
----------------------------------------
...Installing pip...done.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('virtualenv==1.7.1.2', 'console_scripts', 'virtualenv')()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 928, in main
    never_download=options.never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1042, in create_environment
    install_pip(py_executable, search_dirs=search_dirs, never_download=never_download)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 640, in install_pip
    filter_stdout=_filter_setup)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 1006, in call_subprocess
    % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
OSError: Command /home/rpsharp/local/...hon/bin/easy_install /usr/local/lib/pytho...pport/pip-1.1.tar.gz failed with error code 1

I tried the solution proposed here https://stackoverflow.com/a/10538412/42897 but it didn't have any effect.

Answer 1

I had the same problem when trying to run virtualenv, found out the virtualenv was installed in /home/{user}/install/lib/python2.7/site-packages while the python was pointing to /home/{user}/install/bin/virtualenv - you should know this by running

which virtualenv

So I had to uninstall and reinstall virtualenv

pip uninstall virtualenv 
pip install virtualenv

This worked for me.