/usr/bin/python3: Error while finding spec for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')

Question

I'm trying to follow How To Serve Django Applications with uWSGI and Nginx on Ubuntu 14.04 and I'm failing at the very earlier stage, due to amount of output, I placed all related information into Pastebin.com - #1 paste tool since 2002!.

the actual error:

root@alexus:~# echo "source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh" >> ~/.bashrc
root@alexus:~# source ~/.bashrc
/usr/bin/python3: Error while finding spec for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (<class 'ImportError'>: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')
virtualenvwrapper.sh: There was a problem running the initialization hooks.

If Python could not import the module virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader,
check that virtualenvwrapper has been installed for
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3 and that PATH is
set properly.
root@alexus:~#

I'm following how to to the teeth, what am I doing wrong?

Did you try `pip install virtualenvwrapper --upgrade` ? If that won't work, please follow this SO thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11507186/python-virtualenv-no-module-named-virtualenvwrapper-hook-loader — Cajuu', Oct 19 '15 at 14:23
@Alexander I just installed `python-pip` and `virtualenv` & `virtualenvwrapper`. Do I still need to run upgrade? I'm doing fresh install. — alexus, Oct 19 '15 at 14:28
After you installed all of the above, just run `sudo apt-get update`, then `virtualenv myproject`. Please make sure that your `pip` version is compatible with your `python` version — Cajuu', Oct 19 '15 at 14:30
BTW, I've never installed `virtualenvwrapper` and I'm using `uwsgi` with `nginx` on a daily basis. I don't recommend installing it unless it's mandatory for you to use it. — Cajuu', Oct 19 '15 at 14:36
@Alexander my system is up to date. I actually was able to get it to work by switching `VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON` from `python3` to `python`. I need both `virtualenvwrapper` _AND_ `uwsgi` for my `django` application. — alexus, Oct 19 '15 at 14:39

score 105 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 17 '19 at 14:09

105

I faced similar problem, when using python3 with virtualenvwrapper,

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

Then install virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper from pip3,

sudo pip3 install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper

then source it again,

source $HOME/.bashrc

edited Sep 17 '19 at 14:09

yeralin

1,357
13
24

answered Oct 11 '16 at 17:38

Gagandeep Singh

5,755
4
41
60

15

This method also worked for me on OSX Mojave. using `sudo pip3 install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper` – Kyias Sep 05 '18 at 07:59
1

I need to use python3 for some LDAP functionality, so this is probably the best route to go for me. I initially used the solution proposed by @alexus, which worked, however I'm not sure deviating from a python3 specific setting is not going to cause issues down the road. – Server Fault Nov 15 '19 at 17:00
After upgrading to Ubuntu 23.04, the `sudo pip3 install...` command displays `error: externally-managed-environment`, as installing packages globally with pip is now discouraged. The following command worked as a replacement: `sudo apt update ; sudo apt install python3-virtualenv python3-virtualenvwrapper` – Benoît Vogel May 01 '23 at 21:08

score 98 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 10 '20 at 20:55

98

Thanks to @Alexander, I was able to fix my issue by changing the line in ~/.bashrc:

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python3

to

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python

due to backwards compatibility.

edited Sep 10 '20 at 20:55

Harvastum

61
10

answered Oct 20 '15 at 14:21

alexus

7,256
12
44
66

6

This worked for me, but in my case I needed to change it to `/usr/bin/python3.6`. It needs to match whatever version you're using. – Daniel Mar 14 '18 at 08:32
7

Worked after using `sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper` instead of `sudo pip3 install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper` – Nir Jan 03 '19 at 08:43
2

This line needs to be changed in `~/.bashrc`, right? Maybe add that for noobs like me – smcs Sep 08 '20 at 11:25
I ls /usr/bin/python and it links to "python2". But my system is ubuntu 20, I thought python 2 did not exist there – KansaiRobot Oct 20 '20 at 03:06
In my case I try use pyenv + virtualenvwrapper (not the standalone one, but the pyenv plugin). So I have changed python -> python3 (oposite as in your answer). Otherwise the plugin wasn't recognized. The other possibility was to do for python2: apt install python-pip, pip install virtualenvwrapper (ie. standard virtualenvwrapper, not the pyenv wrapper). – mirek Dec 01 '20 at 17:00
@alexus, I installed virtualenv using pip3 and added respective export statements to ./bash_profile. Entris isn bash_profile: export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python3 source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh. It did not work. But then I installed same using pip and it worked. No changes to bash_profile. Will you please explain why did it work this time? – JTN Sep 20 '21 at 12:12
1

Man, you just saved me a ton of hassle. I'd give you 2 upvotes if I could. – mutantkeyboard May 02 '22 at 09:27

score 37 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '17 at 20:37

I encountered a similar issue with virtualenvwrapper complaining not being to find virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader. I was able to narrow down to this particular line in my .bash_profile

source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

as seen below

$ source /usr/local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh
/usr/local/opt/python3/bin/python3.6: Error while finding module specification for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')
virtualenvwrapper.sh: There was a problem running the initialization hooks. 

If Python could not import the module virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader,
check that virtualenvwrapper has been installed for
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python3 and that PATH is
set properly.

After some trial and error, it turns out that a reinstallation of the virtualenvwrapper package resolved it. This was a manifest of the fact that I recently upgrade python3 (from version 3.5.2 to 3.6.1) via homebrew and in turn it broke virtualenvwrapper's shell script that hardcoded references to the older version of python3 (in my case it was 3.5.2). In short, this below line should fix it (at least in my case it did).

pip3 install virtualenvwrapper

Also I noticed that homebrew or some other installed packages at some point in the past that blew away the symlink at `/usr/local/bin/python3`, so somehow re-brew python3 via homebrew to restore the `/usr/local/bin/python3` also make it work again. — Devy, Mar 26 '18 at 14:28
@Devy you can restore the symlink of `/usr/local/bin/python3` with `brew link python@3.8` — mmagician, Oct 07 '20 at 09:02
@Devy thanks man! of all the thread, this worked for me. I had /usr/bin/python and /usr/bin/python3 correctly setup ! — Antoni, May 18 '22 at 05:17

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 06 '17 at 17:19

18

In macOS Sierra, If you installed virtualenv package using pip3, add following to .bash_profile

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python3

or

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(which python3)

after that every new virtualenvironment you created using workon myvenv uses python3 as python interpreter

answered Aug 06 '17 at 17:19

heykarimoff

709
8
14

1

`export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(which python3)` worked for me – Dami Jun 05 '21 at 08:45
`export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(which python3)` worked for me as well. I *think* this happened because I have two versions of python (2.7 default and 3). With this command, it picks the right one based on virtualenv. – Special Character Dec 06 '21 at 19:13
1

Thanks! I spent hours trying to find out what was wrong. In my case I am using **pyenv** so just had to use `export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(pyenv which python)` – Toguard Mar 19 '22 at 04:45

score 16 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 25 '19 at 17:08

16

I had already installed virtualenv so just needed to run

pip3 install virtualenvwrapper

answered Jan 25 '19 at 17:08

Matt Doran

2,050
2
16
18

score 12 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 04 '20 at 05:19

12

In my case, there was somehow a mismatch between pip3 and python3 (because I have multiple pythons installed). This worked for me:

sudo python -m pip install virtualenvwrapper

answered Apr 04 '20 at 05:19

Evan Thomas

401
3
11

score 9 · Answer 7 · answered May 05 '17 at 08:08

9

check your python3 installation directory:

which python3

If installed by brew you should get:

/usr/local/python3

export python version to be used virtualenvwrapper:

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/local/python3

source your shell configuration file:
bash

source .bashrc

zsh

source .zshrc

answered May 05 '17 at 08:08

Dominic Motuka

319
1
5
13

1

This one helped me: my export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON was set to `python3`. Changing it to `/usr/bin/python3`resolved the issue – velis Nov 30 '18 at 07:03

score 8 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 04 '15 at 23:13

8

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python

good choice, but you already knew /usr/bin/python is 2.7

If you want to use version 3

sudo apt-get install python3-pip

and logout & login

answered Dec 04 '15 at 23:13

KIYOUNG KIM

133
1
10

robertspierre · Answer 9 · 2020-12-15T21:43:03.977

8

Here is what for me solved

Error while finding module specification for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')

obtained in creating and activating environments.

In my .bashrc I had wrote:

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=python3

Changing it to:

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(which python3)

solved the problem for me.

NOTE: If you activate an environment and run which python3, you will find out that the python run is the one of the environment, not the global one specified in VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON

edited Dec 15 '20 at 21:43

answered Dec 15 '20 at 21:35

robertspierre

3,218
2
31
46

Same issue on Ubuntu 20.04, this solved it. As a rule of thumb: put the full path of your python interpreter, not relative, since it changes while the virtualenv is starting. – Checo R Sep 07 '21 at 17:54
1

Wish I could up-vote this twice. I tried so. many. other. versions of this suggestion. This is the only one that worked. – hartshoj Oct 16 '21 at 23:15
I was scratching my head for a couple of hours until I found this. Definitely need more upvotes. Saved a lot more hours. – Sachin Jain Apr 27 '23 at 06:26

score 7 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 03 '18 at 18:20

7

This error appeared for me after running brew update and brew upgrade on mac os high sierra.

The issue was resolved by reinstalling virtualenvwrappper i.e. pip install virtualenvwrapper.

answered Apr 03 '18 at 18:20

dstandish

2,328
18
34

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 03 '20 at 12:21

4

I've got this error for entirely different reasons, but since I ended up on this thread, I gather somebody might find this useful. So in my case, it turned out that my script was attempting to activate the virtual environment while I was already on it (the workon statement is issued from my .profile file). And so the solution was to simply deactivate the environment first and then run the script.

answered Jul 03 '20 at 12:21

Vytautas Balevičius

41
2

Thank you so much, gosh it never crossed my mind – shivam13juna Dec 21 '20 at 18:17

score 4 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 14 '21 at 13:11

4

If you're here after a macOS update, and installed python3 via brew, try re-linking your version of python3

brew link python@3.8
brew link python@3.9
etc

answered Jan 14 '21 at 13:11

snakesNbronies

3,619
9
44
73

score 3 · Answer 13 · answered May 15 '20 at 09:10

On my computer, I ran sudo apt install python-pip and then pip install virtualenvwrapper but on my settings, I set it as follows:

export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.Envs
export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=$(which -a python3)
source $HOME/.local/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

That got rid of the error and note that I am using python3 and I use pip3 as my default

kral2 · Answer 14 · 2021-08-27T20:29:17.007

2

I had this warning after a brew upgrade, which updated python3 packages and brew-installed python3.

I found a pip3 and python3 version mismatch as Evan Thomas hinted:

❯ which python3 && python3 --version
/usr/bin/python3
Python 3.8.2

❯ which pip3 && pip3 --version
/usr/local/bin/pip3
pip 21.0.1 from /usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pip (python 3.9)

Running brew link python@3.9 as snakesNbronies suggested removes the warning.

edited Aug 27 '21 at 20:29

answered Feb 22 '21 at 08:27

kral2

123
1
8

You're a hero. I needed to `brew link --overwrite python@3.9` – Roman Dec 15 '22 at 17:40

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Oct 08 '20 at 06:23

I had a similar issue on Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6 after I installed vim and macvim using following:

brew install vim && brew install macvim

which I believe was the cause for the problem.

While workon worked but always gave an error message as below:

 ~ $ workon loom
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3: Error while finding module specification for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin/python3: Error while finding module specification for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')
(loom)  ~ $

What worked for me finally was:

adding export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/local/bin/python3 to .bash_profile
sudo pip3 install virtualenvwrapper

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Oct 26 '22 at 15:56

1

If anyone's still having this issue, I followed the top answer on this thread to fix a pip3 mismatch with my version of python, then ran sudo pip3 install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper followed by source ~/.bashrc which resolved the issue for me.

answered Oct 26 '22 at 15:56

anados

11
1

This fixed it for me. Got the error after upgrading from Pop!_OS 20.04 to 22.04. – Pablo Vazquez Mar 02 '23 at 14:09

Mutiev Fedor · Answer 17 · 2023-01-07T12:07:56.977

I found that problem can be reproduced with or without pyenv. Here checklist how to solve this problem which helps me on Mac with fresh install brew and pyenv:

pyenv install 3.11.1 (or whatever version you need) and global it with command pyenv global 3.11.1
type python and make sure, that it's the same version that you set-up in previous step.
install virtualenvwrapper with python -m pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper
FIRST IMPORTANT! SET THE FIRST VARIABLE CORRECT! which python tells you python path to your installed path. Use this path to selected by system python executable to tell virtualenvwrapper which python it need to use with variable VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON.
SECOND IMPORTANT! Make sure you execute correct virtualenvwrapper.sh. I use pyenv so I just use virtualenvwrapper in my global version (look for config below)

command -v pyenv >/dev/null || export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(pyenv init -)"

export PYENV_VERSION="$(pyenv version-name)"
VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON="$HOME/.pyenv/shims/python"


export WORKON_HOME=$HOME/.virtualenvs
export PROJECT_HOME=$HOME/Devel

source ~/.pyenv/versions/$PYENV_VERSION/bin/virtualenvwrapper.sh

# Tell pyenv-virtualenvwrapper to use pyenv when creating new Python environments
export PYENV_VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PREFER_PYVENV="true"

# Set the pyenv shims to initialize
if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then
 eval "$(pyenv init -)"
fi

Today I encountered this problem again for new user on macos 1) I just paste config to .zshrc (.bashrc in your case) 2) have next error with virtualenvwrapper. There helps to install `pip install virtualenvwrapper` — Mutiev Fedor, Feb 19 '23 at 11:42

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Jan 08 '21 at 12:41

0

try to install python-is-python3:

1.Update the package index:

sudo apt-get update

2.Install python-is-python3 deb package:

sudo apt-get install python-is-python3

answered Jan 08 '21 at 12:41

Rauche Acho

271
3
7

/usr/bin/python3: Error while finding spec for 'virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader' (: No module named 'virtualenvwrapper')

18 Answers18

Linked