Django, python3, on install I get: "Parent module 'setuptools' not loaded"

Question

I see lots of errors and suggestions about Parent module '' not loaded, ...

I don't see any about specifically "out of the box" django 3.5.

$ mkvirtualenv foobar -p /usr/bin/python3
Already using interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Using base prefix '/usr'
New python executable in /home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/bin/python3
Also creating executable in /home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/bin/python
Installing setuptools, pkg_resources, pip, wheel...done.

[foobar] $ pip install django
Collecting django
  Using cached Django-2.2.15-py3-none-any.whl (7.5 MB)
Collecting pytz
  Using cached pytz-2020.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (510 kB)
Collecting sqlparse>=0.2.2
  Using cached sqlparse-0.3.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (40 kB)
Installing collected packages: pytz, sqlparse, django
Successfully installed django-2.2.15 pytz-2020.1 sqlparse-0.3.1

[foobar] $ python
Python 3.5.3 (default, Jul  9 2020, 13:00:10)
[GCC 6.3.0 20170516] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import django
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.utils.version import get_version
  File "/home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/lib/python3.5/site-packages/django/utils/version.py", line 6, in <module>
    from distutils.version import LooseVersion
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 969, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 958, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 666, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 577, in module_from_spec
  File "/home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/lib/python3.5/site-packages/_distutils_hack/__init__.py", line 82, in create_module
    return importlib.import_module('._distutils', 'setuptools')
  File "/home/isaac/.virtualenvs/foobar/lib/python3.5/importlib/__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 981, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 931, in _sanity_check
SystemError: Parent module 'setuptools' not loaded, cannot perform relative import

As you can see, I installed django using python3.5.

It seems to work fine with python2.7...

Is anyone else aware of a way around this bug, or something silly I did in my environment?

I am using debian stretch instead of buster, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to upgrade yet.

Answer 1

Something happened in version 50 of setuptools.

We could "solve" this problem by downgrading setuptools to 49.3.0 (and maybe pip to 20.2.1)

pip install setuptools==49.3.0 and pip install pip==20.2.1

Be aware though that this should only be a temporary solution!