UserWarning: Unbuilt egg for setuptools [unknown version] (/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages)

Workaround:

  sudo rmdir /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info
  sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-setuptools

This replaces the empty directory
/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info with a symlink to /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info which is a file, not a directory.

Why did I have an empty directory there? Something left remaining from an older python-setuptools package? This system is not a fresh Lucid install; it was upgraded from Karmic (which did not spew any UserWarnings). AFAIK dpkg itself doesn't handle transitions from directories to symlinks. Shouldn't python-setuptools ship a postinst script to correct this during upgrades?

I have notices the same warning, Also upgraded from karmic to Lucid. The workaround cleared the warning for me too.

This completely breaks zc.buildout. If you are bitten by this, you will see something similar to the following:

An internal error occured due to a bug in either zc.buildout or in a
recipe being used:
Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
ValueError: ("Missing 'Version:' header and/or PKG-INFO file", setuptools [unknown version] (/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages))

The workaround from Marius allows you to get past the error. Thanks Marius!

Same error from Karmic to Lucd

Same error upgrading from Hardy to Lucid.

This bug appears to be related to bug 490731, "python-setuptools: import setuptools returns ValueError: ("Missing 'Version:' ...)".

Affected by this issue after a Hardy to Lucid upgrade. I found the workaround in comment #2 aren't quite sufficient since it contains several broken sym-links after the upgrade:

ls -l /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info
total 4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 60 2010-06-20 12:35 dependency_links.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 56 2010-06-20 12:35 entry_points.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/entry_points.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 52 2010-06-20 12:35 not-zip-safe -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/not-zip-safe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-06-20 12:35 PKG-INFO -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/PKG-INFO
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 2010-06-20 12:35 SOURCES.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/SOURCES.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 2010-06-20 12:35 top_level.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/top_level.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-06-20 12:35 zip-safe -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/zip-safe

Instead I did:

sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info
sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-setuptools

After which the system has:

ls -l /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 43 2010-06-20 18:27 /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info -> ../../../share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info

The fix above eliminated the warning message I was getting under Lucid running Scons 2.0.0.final.0 as released 14 June 2010. Thanks for sharing, TJ.

Same error updating from Lucid to Maverick and then using Scons. The python-setuptools reinstall fix above fixed it.

We are seeing this bug on one of the Tahoe-LAFS buildslaves: http://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/1235

  sudo rmdir /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info
  sudo apt-get install --reinstall python-setuptools

worked for me as well. Ubuntu 10.04, Lenovo T60.

$ grep -h python-setuptools /var/log/dpkg.log{.1,}
2011-02-04 12:52:28 upgrade python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:28 status half-configured python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:29 status unpacked python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:29 status half-installed python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:31 status half-installed python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:32 status unpacked python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:32 status unpacked python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:33 configure python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:33 status unpacked python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:33 status half-configured python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:33 status installed python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:34 status triggers-awaited python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1
2011-02-04 12:52:34 status installed python-setuptools 0.6.10-4ubuntu1

Error message happened while I was trying to follow these directions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GmailFS.

I'm having this problem as well:

/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/chameleon/template.py:22: UserWarning: Unbuilt egg for setuptools [unknown version] (/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages)
  if distribution.has_version():

$ ls /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info -la
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-06-14 15:07 .
drwxr-xr-x 36 root root 4096 2011-12-16 15:11 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 60 2010-06-14 15:07 dependency_links.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 56 2010-06-14 15:07 entry_points.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/entry_points.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 52 2010-06-14 15:07 not-zip-safe -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/not-zip-safe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-06-14 15:07 PKG-INFO -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/PKG-INFO
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 2010-06-14 15:07 SOURCES.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/SOURCES.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 53 2010-06-14 15:07 top_level.txt -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/top_level.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 48 2010-06-14 15:07 zip-safe -> /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/zip-safe

$ ls -la /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
ls: cannot access /usr/share/pyshared/setuptools.egg-info/dependency_links.txt: Not a directory