ImportError: Entry point ('console_scripts', 'easy_install') not found

Question

I'm trying to install a package and one of the instructions is the following, but I get an error.

easy_install -U distribute pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/easy_install", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('distribute', 'console_scripts', 'easy_install')()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-3.4.1-py2.7.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 351, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/setuptools-3.4.1-py2.7.egg/pkg_resources.py", line 2362, in load_entry_point
    raise ImportError("Entry point %r not found" % ((group,name),))
ImportError: Entry point ('console_scripts', 'easy_install') not found
make: *** [install] Error 1

Looking at other similar questions I still haven't figured out the solution but it seems to be some Python version or installation clash?

Answer 1

The problem is likely multiple installed versions, stemming from installing via aptitude and pip/easy_install. This helped me:

pip uninstall <package>
sudo pip uninstall <package>
sudo aptitude remove <package>

then reinstall it...