trying to import a module: undefined symbol: PyUnicodeUCS4_DecodeUTF8

Question

import glib fails with:

ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/glib/_glib.so: undefined symbol: PyUnicodeUCS4_DecodeUTF8

How can I fix this?

Python version is Python 2.7.3rc2. The OS is Debian.

Answer 1

The module was built against a Python that was built with UCS-4 as its internal unicode representation. Your Python was built with UCS-2 as its internal representation. Rebuild the module, or rebuild Python.

This issue is mentioned in the official FAQ. This is discussed in-depth in python issue 8654.