virtualenv AssertionError with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.3
Question: I am using RHEL 6.3 and have 2.6.6. I need to use the Python 2.7.6. I compiled
python from source, installed pip and virtual env.

Now I am trying in different ways:

    
    
    virtualenv-2.7 testvirtualenv
    virtualenv --python=/usr/local/bin/python2.7 myenv
    

However I am getting AssertionError. Full trace:

    
    
        New python executable in testvirtualenv/bin/python2.7
    Also creating executable in testvirtualenv/bin/python
    Installing setuptools, pip...
      Complete output from command /tmp/testvirtualenv/bin/python2.7 -c "import sys, pip; pip...ll\"] + sys.argv[1:])" setuptools pip:
      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/pip-1.5-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/__init__.py", line 9, in <module>
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/pip-1.5-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pip/log.py", line 8, in <module>
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 2696, in <module>
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 429, in __init__
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 443, in add_entry
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 1722, in find_in_zip
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 1298, in has_metadata
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 1614, in _has
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/pkg_resources.py", line 1488, in _zipinfo_name
    AssertionError: /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/EGG-INFO/PKG-INFO is not a subpath of /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv_support/setuptools-2.0.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl/
    ----------------------------------------
    ...Installing setuptools, pip...done.
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/usr/local/bin/virtualenv-2.7", line 9, in <module>
        load_entry_point('virtualenv==1.11', 'console_scripts', 'virtualenv-2.7')()
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 820, in main
        symlink=options.symlink)
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 988, in create_environment
        install_wheel(to_install, py_executable, search_dirs)
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 956, in install_wheel
        'PIP_NO_INDEX': '1'
      File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/virtualenv-1.11-py2.7.egg/virtualenv.py", line 898, in call_subprocess
        % (cmd_desc, proc.returncode))
    OSError: Command /tmp/testvirtualenv/bin/python2.7 -c "import sys, pip; pip...ll\"] + sys.argv[1:])" setuptools pip failed with error code 1
    


Answer: I had the same problem. What I found and how I solve it:

There is an issue with the virtualenv 1.11 version:
<https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/issue/129/assertionerror-egg-info-pkg-
info-is-not-a>

My solution:

Start again the installation specifying an older version of virtualenv.
(1.10.1 is ok)

    
    
    /usr/local/bin/easy_install-2.7 virtualenv==1.10.1
    

Then you can proceed with the rest of the installation:

    
    
    virtualenv-2.7 testvirtualenv
    

