python: error while loading shared libraries: libpython3.4m.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Question

I have created a python virtual environment using virtualenv, after activating it, I can see where is Python installed in my shell as following:

(virtualenv-test) bash-4.1$ whereis python python: /usr/bin/python2.6 /usr/bin/python2.6-config /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/python2.6 /usr/lib64/python2.6 /usr/X11R6/bin/python2.6 /usr/X11R6/bin/python2.6-config /usr/X11R6/bin/python /usr/bin/X11/python2.6 /usr/bin/X11/python2.6-config /usr/bin/X11/python /usr/include/python2.6 /usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz 

Also I can see what python version I'm using:

(virtualenv-test) bash-4.1$ which python /data/virtualenv-test/bin/python 

However, after typing python, I got the following error message:

(virtualenv-test) bash-4.1$ python python: error while loading shared libraries: libpython3.4m.so.1.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 

What can be the underlying reason?

Answer 1

Try adding the python3.4's lib path to the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable.

First find out the lib path of python3.4 (depends on how you installed python3.4)

For me it was: /opt/python361/lib, then add it to environment variable like so:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/opt/python361/lib 

P.S. I came across a similar problem while using virtualenv with python3.6, and I fixed it like so:

• First, append include <lib path of python3.x> to /etc/ld.so.conf (Something like: include /opt/python361/lib or include /usr/local/lib)
• Then, activate the new configuration by running sudo /sbin/ldconfig -v.