ImportError: No module named extern

Question

I'm getting this error when trying to install any package with pip. I have two pip instances, one with Python 2.7 and other with Python 3.

    Could not import setuptools which is required to install from a source distribution.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pip/req/req_install.py", line 375, in setup_py
    import setuptools  # noqa
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools/__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
    from setuptools.extern.six.moves import filterfalse, map
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools/extern/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from pkg_resources.extern import VendorImporter
ImportError: No module named extern

Even when I try to install the 'extern' module I get this error. Also when installing with Python itself, like python setup.py install.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

sudo apt-get purge python-pkg-resources
sudo apt-get -f install

here actually packages are removed and purged (any configuration files are deleted too).

-f : Attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.

sudo pip install packagename

#sourcehere

Answer 2

Do this it will work

sudo pip install -U setuptools