Python virtualenv ImportError: No module named 'zlib'

Question

I am on an Ubuntu machine, which has Python 2.7.6 as its default python. It also has Python 3.4.3, with both versions located in /usr/bin/.

I have downloaded virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper. I then downloaded the current version of Python, 3.5.1. In its directory I ran the following commands:

./configure
make
make test
sudo make altinstall

Python 3.5.1 is now installed in /usr/local/bin/.

I now run the following commands:

mkvirtualenv test1
mkvirtualenv test2 -p /usr/bin/python3
mkvirtualenv test3 -p /usr/local/bin/python3.5

Environment test1 successfully created with Python version 2.7.6, and environment test2 successfully created with Python version 3.4.3. However, test3 fails with the following error:

ImportError: No module named 'zlib'

I see mentioned that I need to have "zlib" installed when compiling python to begin with, though make test didn't seem to give any problems. Do I just need to download and compile zlib from www.zlib.net and recompile python3.5?

Answer 1

zlib is a built-in module for Python 3.5. I think you just need re-compile Python 3.5...

Look that link for Python virtualenv : https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/3uwk76/help_using_python_in_linux/

Get python source and extract

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.5.0/Python-3.5.0.tgz tar xvf Python-3.5.0.tgz

configure for local install

cd Python-3.5.0/ ./configure --prefix=$HOME/python35 make

If it complains about missing dependencies, install them, make clean and repeat.

make install