python-dev installation error: ImportError: No module named apt_pkg

I met this problem when doing sudo apt-get update. My env is debian8, with python2.7 + 3.4(default) + 3.5.

The following code will only re-create a apt_pkg....so file for python 3.5

sudo apt-get install python3-apt --reinstall

The following code solved my problem,

cd /usr/lib/python3/dist-packagessudo ln -s apt_pkg.cpython-{your-version-number}-x86_64-linux-gnu.so apt_pkg.so

Replace {your-version-number} appropriately.

So, obviously, python3-apt checks the highest python version, instead of the current python version in use.

python linux installation debian

Solve it by this:

/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages# cp apt_pkg.cpython-34m-i386-linux-gnu.so apt_pkg.so

Or:

/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages# cp apt_pkg.cpython-35m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so apt_pkg.so

Basically, if you get a No such file or directory just ls to try to get the right name.

python linux installation debian

This happened to me on Ubuntu 18.04.2 after I tried to install Python3.7 from the deadsnakes repo.

Solution was this

1) cd /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/

2) sudo ln -s apt_pkg.cpython-36m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so apt_pkg.so

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