Buildout tries to update system-wide Distribute installation and refuses to run
Question: Buildout doesn't like my system-wide Distribute installation and refuses to
run:

    
    
    plone@s15447224:~/mybuildout$ python bootstrap.py 
    Creating directory '/home/plone/mybuildout/bin'.
    Creating directory '/home/plone/mybuildout/parts'.
    Creating directory '/home/plone/mybuildout/eggs'.
    Creating directory '/home/plone/mybuildout/develop-eggs'.
    Getting distribution for 'distribute==0.6.14'.
    Before install bootstrap.
    Scanning installed packages
    Setuptools installation detected at /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages
    Non-egg installation
    Removing elements out of the way...
    Already patched.
    /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools.egg-info already patched.
    After install bootstrap.
    Creating /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg-info
    error: /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/setuptools-0.6c11-py2.6.egg-info: Permission denied
    An error occurred when trying to install distribute 0.6.14. Look above this message for any errors that were output by easy_install.
    While:
      Bootstrapping.
      Getting distribution for 'distribute==0.6.14'.
    Error: Couldn't install: distribute 0.6.14
    

Is there some way to tell buildout to install its own Distribute and not to
mess with system-wide Python installation?

I know about virtualenv. But it seems to be an overkill just to install
virtualenv to make buildout happy. There must be some other way.

Python 2.6. Plone 4.1. Ubuntu 10.4.


Answer: Yes, use Buildout 1.5.x which runs Python with the '-S' argument (-S : don't
imply 'import site' on initialization).

  * E.g.: <http://build.pythonpackages.com/buildout/plone/4.1.x>

(and you might try upgrading your system-wide Distribute to the latest version
too)

