Question

I created a virtualenv in my django app folder, and there I installed all my python dependencies. My Django project is called theme, so in the theme folder there is a venv folder that contains the python libs.
If I run python manage.py syncdb it throwsError was: No module named postgresql_psycopg2.base. Here is the traceback:

(venv)app@domain-VirtualBox:~/dj/theme$ python manage.py syncdb
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 14, in <module>
    execute_manager(settings)
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 459, in execute_manager
    utility.execute()
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 382, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 261, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 69, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 8, in <module>
    from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_signal
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/sql.py", line 6, in <module>
    from django.db import models
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 40, in <module>
    backend = load_backend(connection.settings_dict['ENGINE'])
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 34, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 92, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 51, in load_backend
    raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: 'postgresql_psycopg2' isn't an available database backend.
Try using django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2 instead.
Error was: No module named postgresql_psycopg2.base

But the thing is that if I try importing psycopg2 from a python command line, it works :

(venv)app@domain-VirtualBox:~/dj/theme$ python
Python 2.7.3 (default, Apr 20 2012, 22:44:07)
[GCC 4.6.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import psycopg2
>>> quit()

and here is my python path:

>>> import sys
>>> print sys.path
['', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/distribute-0.6.24-py2.7.egg', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.1-py2.7.egg', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/distribute-0.6.24-py2.7.egg', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pip-1.1-py2.7.egg', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7', '/home/leonsas/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-old', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.7', '/usr/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.7/lib-tk', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages', '/home/app/dj/theme/venv/lib/python2.7/site-packages']
>>> quit()

And the whereis python:

(venv)app@domain-VirtualBox:~/dj/theme$ whereis python
python: /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/python2.7-config /etc/python2.7 /etc/python /usr/lib/python2.7 /usr/bin/X11/python2.7 /usr/bin/X11/python /usr/bin/X11/python2.7-config /usr/local/lib/python2.7 /usr/include/python2.7 /usr/share/python /usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz

I believe the problem lies there, but I’m not sure how to fix it. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try to follow the suggestion from the django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured exception:
use 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2' instead of 'postgresql_psycopg2' in DATABASES in your settings