This is the error I get
(mysite)zjm1126@zjm1126-G41MT-S2:~/zjm_test/mysite$ pip install mysql-python Downloading/unpacking mysql-python Do
For anyone that is using MariaDB instead of MySQL, the solution is to install the libmariadbclient-dev package and create a symbolic link to the config file with the correct name.
libmariadbclient-dev
For example this worked for me:
ln -s /usr/bin/mariadb_config /usr/bin/mysql_config