Error Loading MySQLdb Module and "pip install MySQLdb"

Question

I'm trying start up a Django project.

I get this error on trying to run the manage.py:

(venv)dyn-160-39-161-214:proj Bren$ python manage.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 354, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 328, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 18, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 108, in populate
    app_config.import_models(all_models)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 198, in import_models
    self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/models.py", line 41, in <module>
    class Permission(models.Model):
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 139, in __new__
    new_class.add_to_class('_meta', Options(meta, **kwargs))
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/base.py", line 324, in add_to_class
    value.contribute_to_class(cls, name)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/options.py", line 250, in contribute_to_class
    self.db_table = truncate_name(self.db_table, connection.ops.max_name_length())
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 36, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 241, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 112, in load_backend
    return import_module('%s.base' % backend_name)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "/Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 27, in <module>
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("Error loading MySQLdb module: %s" % e)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: No module named MySQLdb

I was wondering what module I should try to install.

When I use pip install MySQLdb I get this error:

    Collecting MySQLdb
  Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement MySQLdb (from versions: )
No matching distribution found for MySQLdb

When I look this up on SO and other places it seems there are lots of different mysql modules out there.

Also this is what my setup looks like for the DB (I didnt write this porject and am largely new to django and python):

    DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',

...

    }
}

EdBaker suggested pip install MySQL-python

I got this as a response:

Collecting MySQL-python   Using cached MySQL-python-1.2.5.zip
    Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
    sh: mysql_config: command not found
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 20, in <module>
      File "/private/var/folders/m3/11zknyw55zxbw6zqh58rwq580000gn/T/pip-build-DC9tSL/MySQL-python/setup.py", line 17, in <module>
        metadata, options = get_config()
      File "setup_posix.py", line 43, in get_config
        libs = mysql_config("libs_r")
      File "setup_posix.py", line 25, in mysql_config
        raise EnvironmentError("%s not found" % (mysql_config.path,))
    EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

    ---------------------------------------- Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /private/var/folders/m3/11zknyw55zxbw6zqh58rwq580000gn/T/pip-build-DC9tSL/MySQL-python

Attempting to run import MySQLdb in the shell:

[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.0 (clang-600.0.39)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import MySQLdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

Attempting to upgrade pip:

pip install pip --upgrade

showed pip was up to date

Requirement already up-to-date: pip in /Users/Bren/Desktop/fss/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages

Answer 1

Clearly installing pip install MySQL-python is the way to go. The problem is with the location of mysql_config. Look around here, this might help you depending on your OS: mysql_config not found when installing mysqldb python interface

Edit:

In case the install script fails with Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in {...}, installing libmysqlclient-dev with

sudo apt install libmysqlclient-dev

should fix the issue. Thanks to @thirupathi-thangavel.