Python/IPython ImportError: no module named site

Question

I had python 2.7.3 and ipython 1.2 up and running correctly on my Linux system (ubuntu 12.04) but was trying to install a

Answer 1

PYTHONHOME

Change the location of the standard Python libraries. By default, the libraries are searched in prefix/lib/pythonversion and exec_prefix/lib/pythonversion, where prefix and exec_prefix are installation-dependent directories, both defaulting to /usr/local.

When PYTHONHOME is set to a single directory, its value replaces both prefix and exec_prefix. To specify different values for these, set PYTHONHOME to prefix:exec_prefix.

Try to clean up your PYTHONHOME:

user$ export PYTHONHOME=

As for installing matplotlib, I would recommend the following:

sudo apt-get install python-matplotlib

(details here)