MySQLdb will only import for root

[martinnorth]

Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If I
try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>import MySQLdb

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import a
module.

Martin

[Diez B. Roggisch]

martinnorth schrieb:

Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If I
try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>import MySQLdb

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import a
module.

Try importing sys and printing out sys.path both with a "normal" account
and the root-account, to see if there are any differences. And of course
make sure both actually use the same interpreter.

Beyond that, you are right: there is no root-only-importing.

Diez

[Jeff]

Is it possible the module was installed with priviledges set too
strict? Perhaps the interpreter cannot see the module when it is run
from a normal user account.

[Peter Otten]

martinnorth wrote:

Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If I
try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

>>import MySQLdb

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import a
module.

You have probably installed two versions of Python. You can verify that by
typing

$ which python

and

$ sudo which python

I suspect that root sees the python that comes with Ubuntu and that has
MySQLdb installed while the normal user sees ActiveState's Python.

Peter

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Jeff schrieb:

Is it possible the module was installed with priviledges set too
strict? Perhaps the interpreter cannot see the module when it is run
from a normal user account.

Possible - certainly. Yet unrealistic, because usually root access is
*required* to system-wide install a package - thus the normal install
processes ensure proper rights.

Diez

[Jeffrey Froman]

Diez B. Roggisch wrote:

>Is it possible the module was installed with priviledges set too
strict? Â*Perhaps the interpreter cannot see the module when it is run
from a normal user account.

Possible - certainly. Yet unrealistic, because usually root access is
required to system-wide install a package - thus the normal install
processes ensure proper rights.

According to the OP, it is root that *does* have access to MySQLdb and a
normal user that does not. It is a very realistic possibility to install
something as root to which normal users do not have access. Installation
scripts that assume a particular umask during install, for example, are
especial culprits.

I have noticed this problem myself with python modules that include compiled
C extensions, as MySQLdb does. However, in the case where the extension
module itself has incorrect permissions, the error would point to a missing
_mysql, rather than a missing MySQLdb.
Jeffrey

[martinnorth]

Diez B. Roggisch wrote:

martinnorth schrieb:

>Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If
I try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

> >>import MySQLdb

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import
a module.

Try importing sys and printing out sys.path both with a "normal" account
and the root-account, to see if there are any differences. And of course
make sure both actually use the same interpreter.

Beyond that, you are right: there is no root-only-importing.

Diez

Now that I look at, it appears it might not be the same interpreter.
When running python as root I get:

Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Apr 21 2008, 11:12:42)
[GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

Which is completely different from when I'm a normal user (see original
post). And yes, sys.path is different.

Being somewhat new to python and linux, how would I go about fixing
this? How do I get a normal user to run the same interpreter? Is it to
do with my PATH?

Martin

[Peter Otten]

martinnorth wrote:

Diez B. Roggisch wrote:

>martinnorth schrieb:

>>Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If
I try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>import MySQLdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import
a module.

Try importing sys and printing out sys.path both with a "normal" account
and the root-account, to see if there are any differences. And of course
make sure both actually use the same interpreter.

Beyond that, you are right: there is no root-only-importing.

Diez

Now that I look at, it appears it might not be the same interpreter.
When running python as root I get:

Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Apr 21 2008, 11:12:42)
[GCC 4.2.3 (Ubuntu 4.2.3-2ubuntu7)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

Which is completely different from when I'm a normal user (see original
post). And yes, sys.path is different.

Being somewhat new to python and linux, how would I go about fixing
this? How do I get a normal user to run the same interpreter? Is it to
do with my PATH?

Yes, you can either invoke the standard interpreter explicitly with

$ /usr/bin/python

or remove /the/path/to/activestate/python

from your PATH. (If you were just experimenting and don't really need
ActiveState I recommend that you remove it completely)

Peter

[martinnorth]

Peter Otten wrote:

martinnorth wrote:

>Hi,

I am running Python and MySQL on Ubuntu and have installed MySQLdb. If I
try to import MySQLdb I get the following error:

ActivePython 2.5.2.2 (ActiveState Software Inc.) based on
Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Mar 27 2008, 16:42:08)
[GCC 3.3.1 (SuSE Linux)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

> >>import MySQLdb

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named MySQLdb

But if I lrun python as the root user it imports fine. Can anyone
suggest what might be wrong with the installation? Or is there nothing
wrong? I haven't seen any examples that mentioned being root to import a
module.

You have probably installed two versions of Python. You can verify that by
typing

$ which python

and

$ sudo which python

I suspect that root sees the python that comes with Ubuntu and that has
MySQLdb installed while the normal user sees ActiveState's Python.

Peter

Thanks Peter, that was it. Located the ActiveState directory and removed
it. Now the module imports for all users.

Martin