AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute python

Question

I am fairly new to python and have tried installing python 2.7.9 following the steps described here . The installation failed with the following error:

python make: *** [libinstall] Error 1

I tried reinstalling the previous version of python:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall  python2.7-dev

The installation proceeded normally. However, now, when trying to import hashlib I get the following errors:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./server.py", line 5, in <module>
    import hashlib
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/hashlib.py", line 138, in <module>
    _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'openssl_md_meth_names'

I am also unable to install any packages using pip as the only output provided is the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pip", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
ImportError: No module named pkg_resources

I installed python-setuptools :

sudo apt-get install python-setuptools

pip still provides the same output regardless of the input. Following this question I ran:

curl -O https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py
chmod +x ez_setup.py
python ez_setup.py

The output is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "ez_setup.py", line 19, in <module>
    import tempfile
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/tempfile.py", line 35, in <module>
    from random import Random as _Random
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 49, in <module>
    import hashlib as _hashlib
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/hashlib.py", line 138, in <module>
    _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'openssl_md_meth_names'

Where is the issue?

Edit #1:

The output of sudo apt-get install --reinstall python2.7-dev seems normal:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libjs-sphinxdoc linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 310 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/269 kB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 219657 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../python2.7-dev_2.7.6-8_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking python2.7-dev (2.7.6-8) over (2.7.6-8) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1) ...
Setting up python2.7-dev (2.7.6-8) ...

Edit #2:

I have found this question which tackles a similar issue. It points to this thread which uses a checkinstall in order to retrieve all written files and creating a .deb package from them:

sudo apt-get install checkinstall  # install the checkinstall package
cd /home/user/Python-2.7.9
sudo checkinstall -D --fstrans=no make install   # make the deb package

Upon running the last command the output provided is identical with the one given by make install :

...
Listing /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/parsers ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/parsers/__init__.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/parsers/expat.py ...
Listing /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/__init__.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/_exceptions.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/expatreader.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/handler.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/saxutils.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xml/sax/xmlreader.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xmllib.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/xmlrpclib.py ...
Compiling /usr/lib/python2.7/zipfile.py ...
make: *** [libinstall] Error 1

Edit #3:

It appears that all scripts are unable to run. I am working on signing algorithms(used in bitcoin) and the tools mentioned here (bu, tx) are all outputting the same error:

 Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/bu", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
ImportError: No module named pkg_resources

Edit #4:

I have also tried the approach mentioned here . The output of python get-pip.py is the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "get-pip.py", line 28, in <module>
    import tempfile
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/tempfile.py", line 35, in <module>
    from random import Random as _Random
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 49, in <module>
    import hashlib as _hashlib
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/hashlib.py", line 138, in <module>
    _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'openssl_md_meth_names'

If I comment the line:

import tempfile

then execution continues up to line 141:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "get-pip.py", line 19892, in <module>
    main()
  File "get-pip.py", line 141, in main
    tmpdir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
NameError: global name 'tempfile' is not defined

meaning that the import of the following libraries:

import os.path
import pkgutil
import shutil
import sys
import struct
# import tempfile

succeeds. This makes me believe that the installation of python2.7.9 is only partially complete(as wisely suggested in the comments to this question).

Edit #5:

I have reran the configuration and compilation steps:

./configure --prefix=/usr       \
            --enable-shared     \
            --with-system-expat \
            --with-system-ffi   \
            --enable-unicode=ucs4 &&
make

The builds terminates with:

Python build finished, but the necessary bits to build these modules were not found:
bsddb185           dl                 imageop         
sunaudiodev                                           
To find the necessary bits, look in setup.py in detect_modules() for the module's name.

running build_scripts

Are these modules essential?

Answer 1

It's an old thread, but my answer might help others in the future.

Step 1. check _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names through the following, and no error shows up.

$ python
Python 2.7.9 (default, Oct 20 2016, 07:39:46) 
[GCC 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-4)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import _hashlib
>>> _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names
frozenset(['SHA256', 'SHA512', 'dsaWithSHA', 'md4', 'sha256', 'sha512', 'RIPEMD160', 'md5', 'whirlpool', 'SHA1', 'SHA224', 'SHA', 'SHA384', 'ecdsa-with-SHA1', 'MD4', 'DSA', 'sha1', 'DSA-SHA', 'sha224', 'dsaEncryption', 'ripemd160', 'sha', 'MD5', 'sha384'])
>>> 

Step 2:

change the followng line:

File "/usr/lib/python2.7/random.py", line 49, in <module>
import hashlib as _hashlib

into:

import _hashlib

Then it's done.

Answer 2

File "/usr/lib/python2.7/hashlib.py", line 138, in _hashlib.openssl_md_meth_names) AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'openssl_md_meth_names'

Can be fixed by running:

pip install hashlib

or

easyinstall hashlib

or

easy_install-2.7 hashlib

Answer 3

in my case, i am using virtualenv just copied virtualenv folder from old machine into new ... in my new when i tried to install pip packages it threw this error..

i resolved this issue by creating new virtualenv reinstalled pip packages once again...