We Keep Coding

Is it possible to use the python3 bindings for VirtualBox?

I am trying to use the python 3 bindings to VirtualBox but there appears to be broken dependencies. It seems odd to me that this hasn't been fixed over the ~4 years that people have been having this issue. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious. It's been known to happen.
I have installed the virtualbox host modules, sdk, and extensions through my OS's pacakage manager. Then, through pip:
pip install pyvbox
The imports work:
from virtualbox import VirtualBox, Session, Manager, WebServiceManager
But then any attempt to instantiate anything results in an exception complaining about a missing vboxapi.
box = VirtualBox()
Traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/virtualbox/library_ext/vbox.py", line 22, in __init__
manager = virtualbox.Manager()
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/virtualbox/__init__.py", line 130, in __init__
with import_vboxapi() as vboxapi:
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/contextlib.py", line 82, in __enter__
return next(self.gen)
File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/virtualbox/__init__.py", line 45, in import_vboxapi
import vboxapi
File "/home/$USER/.eclipse/org.eclipse.platform_4.6.3_155965261_linux_gtk_x86_64/plugins/org.python.pydev_5.7.0.201704111357/pysrc/_pydev_bundle/pydev_import_hook.py", line 20, in do_import
module = self._system_import(name, *args, **kwargs)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'vboxapi'
There is a vboxapi on PyPi, but it won't install as there is no code associated with it, nor any useful information on the PyPi page:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/vboxapi
Here are a couple links to the valiant efforts of braver souls than I. It is not immediately clear to me which is the correct solution or if either are still relevant, given that they are from 3 and 4 years ago, respectively.
https://github.com/GreatFruitOmsk/vboxapi-py3
https://github.com/jbuergel/vboxapi-py3
Also from 3 years ago, word of a vboxapi.diff and intergration into vboxapi:
https://www.virtualbox.org/pipermail/vbox-dev/2014-April/012231.html

I'm the current maintainer of the pyvbox package.
The VirtualBox SDK already supports Python 3, I use Python 3.5 to develop the library. I recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the latest version of the SDK (which at the time of writing this is 5.1.22).
You can find the SDK on the VirtualBox downloads page. Unzip the archive and run the vboxapisetup.py file using your system Python with the following command:
python vboxapisetup.py install
You don't need to install this in any virtualenv, as pyvbox will search your system libraries in addition to virtualenv installations for better ease of use.
If you have problems using the pyvbox package after running these steps, please open an issue and include as much information as possible including the steps you took, OS, where your system Python is located, which version of VirtualBox & SDK you're using, and I'll help you as best I can.

Yes you can, it is possible, very tricky to setup but it work fine for me now (Ubuntu 18.04 / python3.6 / virtualbox 6.0) .
The error:
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'vboxapi'
mean that python3 does not find vboxapi module, now there is two methods to "force-install" the vboxapi package to python3:
First Method [easy]: Assuming pyvbox is already installed and work fine with python2.7, in that case you can simply copy the package from python2.7 dist-packages to python3 dist-package with:
sudo cp -r /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/vboxapi /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
Second method [more tricky]: Go to VirtualBox, then download the last Software Developer Kit (SDK), actually the 6.0.4
Unzip the archive and run the vboxapisetup.py file using Python3 with the following command:
sudo python3 vboxapisetup.py install
You will get this issue:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "vboxapisetup.py", line 90, in <module>
main(sys.argv)
File "vboxapisetup.py", line 63, in main
raise Exception("No VBOX_INSTALL_PATH defined, exiting")
Exception: No VBOX_INSTALL_PATH defined, exiting
You may directly edit the current file vboxapisetup.py and replace line 57, from vboxDest = os.environ.get("VBOX_MSI_INSTALL_PATH", None) to vboxDest = "/usr/lib/virtualbox"
Then run agin:
sudo python3 vboxapisetup.py install
And now you will get something like that:
running install
running build
running build_py
copying vboxapi/__init__.py -> build/lib/vboxapi
running install_lib
creating /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi
copying build/lib/vboxapi/__init__.py -> /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi
copying build/lib/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.py -> /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi
byte-compiling /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi/__init__.py to __init__.cpython-36.pyc
byte-compiling /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi/VirtualBox_constants.py to VirtualBox_constants.cpython-36.pyc
running install_egg_info
Removing /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi-1.0.egg-info
Writing /usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi-1.0.egg-info
which mean that we are ok with vboxapi package installation !
Now, let's try again to load virtualbox() inside python3:
from virtualbox import VirtualBox, Session, Manager, WebServiceManager
box = VirtualBox()
this probably will raise this new issue:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "virtualbox_python3_test.py", line XX, in <module>
vbox = virtualbox.VirtualBox()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/virtualbox/library_ext/vbox.py", line 22, in __init__
manager = virtualbox.Manager()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/virtualbox/__init__.py", line 143, in __init__
self.manager = vboxapi.VirtualBoxManager(mtype, mparams)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi/__init__.py", line 989, in __init__
self.platform = PlatformXPCOM(dPlatformParams)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/vboxapi/__init__.py", line 750, in __init__
import xpcom.vboxxpcom
File "/usr/lib/virtualbox/sdk/bindings/xpcom/python/xpcom/vboxxpcom.py", line 78, in <module>
raise Exception('Cannot find VBoxPython module (tried: %s)' % (', '.join(_asVBoxPythons),))
Exception: Cannot find VBoxPython module (tried: VBoxPython3_6m, VBoxPython3m, VBoxPython)
If you dig you will find a lot of questions (question 1,question 2,question 3, question 4 etc...) relative to this issue on the web ...
But according to my dig & research, if you are lucky (and have a Virtualbox built with python3 native support) you can try:
cd /usr/lib/virtualbox/
sudo cp VBoxPython3_5m.so VBoxPython3_6m.so
But if you got the following error:
cp: cannot stat 'VBoxPython3_5m.so': No such file or directory
It mean that you don't have native python3 support in Virtualbox...
This could be solved like this:
Go here and download the python3-virtualbox-5.2.16 binary package (we don't care about the VirtualBox version...)
Now open python3-virtualbox-5.2.16-lp150.4.11.1.x86_64.rpm archive, browse it to /./usr/lib/virtualbox/, then extract the file VBoxPython3_6m.so, then drop this file in your current working directory, after that from this directory you have to do:
sudo cp VBoxPython3_6m.so /usr/lib/virtualbox/
And now, you can use python3 binding for virtualbox !

Unable to run Python interpreter in terminal, through Anaconda3

When I try the "python" or "python3" command to run the interpreter, this is the error am getting.
[sidgupta234#sidgupta234-Lenovo-G580 Downloads]$ python
Failed to import the site module
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/site.py", line 580, in <module>
main()
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/site.py", line 566, in main
known_paths = addusersitepackages(known_paths)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/site.py", line 287, in addusersitepackages
user_site = getusersitepackages()
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/site.py", line 263, in getusersitepackages
user_base = getuserbase() # this will also set USER_BASE
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/site.py", line 253, in getuserbase
USER_BASE = get_config_var('userbase')
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/sysconfig.py", line 595, in get_config_var
return get_config_vars().get(name)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/sysconfig.py", line 538, in get_config_vars
_init_posix(_CONFIG_VARS)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/sysconfig.py", line 410, in _init_posix
from _sysconfigdata import build_time_vars
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/_sysconfigdata.py", line 6, in <module>
from _sysconfigdata_m import *
ImportError: No module named '_sysconfigdata_m'
Output to which python
[sidgupta234#sidgupta234-Lenovo-G580 Downloads]$ which python
/usr/bin/python
Output to python -V
[sidgupta234#sidgupta234-Lenovo-G580 Downloads]$ python -V
Python 3.5.2 :: Continuum Analytics, Inc.
Could you tell me the reason of this error and how can I remove it?
I found this link while looking for the solution, but it didnt make any difference.

I guess configuring_apache_django_anaconda is relevant, if you look at the troubleshooting section.
This means that apache is using Python 2 instead of Python 3 to run a program that is designed for Python 3 only, and fails because Python 2 does not have the _sysconfigdata_m module. The solution is to add the following file to your apache envvar file (/etc/apache2/envvar):
export PATH=/opt/anaconda3/bin:$PATH
So maybe check which version of python anaconda is running?
Also these two might be related:Linux - Weird Python Output
ubuntu anaconda suggested fix
I would suggest you print your PATH variable to see if you have several python3 entries in there, and try to specify explicity which one to run.

That is an strange situation you have gotten yourself into, and if Continuum had any part of it (where I'm an engineer) we'd like to understand what we did that led to it so we can avoid it in the future.
Where did you try installing Anaconda? Did you set any environment variables?
The "easiest-to-resolve" cause of this problem is that you have set some environment variables that are mixing system Python libraries and Anaconda Python libraries. You should look at the output of:
env | grep -i anaconda
and see if anything comes up that specifies a path to Anaconda. The only one that should appear is an entry in PATH. If there are any LD_LIBRARY_PATH, PYTHONPATH, PYTHONHOME or similar environment variables that point to Anaconda then that is going to be a problem.
The only other thing I can think of is that you specified /usr as the install path for Anaconda. If that is the case you are probably in for a world of pain: you have just replaced your system Python with Anaconda. You should investigate how to force-reinstall whichever Python package comes with your *nix distribution, but even that might be tricky: tools such as yum are written in Python and will need a working system Python interpreter to work. But RPM is binary (if you're on a RedHat or derivative distro), so maybe you can wget or curl the necessary system Python packages and force-install them to try and fix things.
Let us know if that is enough information for you to fix things or at least identify the source of the problem a little better.

Error Import Impyla library on Windows

I'm having trouble with using impyla library on windows
I installed impyla library
pip install impyla
Error occured when I tried to import impyla libary in python code
from impala.dbapi import connect # error occured
from impala.util import as_pandas
conn = connect(host='10.xx.xx.xx', database='xx_xx', port=21050)`
Traceback (most recent call last): ...
File "D:/test/test.py", line 14, in
from impala.dbapi import connect
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\impala\dbapi.py", line 28, in
import impala.hiveserver2 as hs2
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\impala\hiveserver2.py", line 32, in
from impala._thrift_api import (
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\impala_thrift_api.py", line 73, in
include_dirs=[thrift_dir])
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\thriftpy\parser__init__.py", line 30, in load
include_dir=include_dir)
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\thriftpy\parser\parser.py", line 496, in parse
url_scheme))
thriftpy.parser.exc.ThriftParserError: ThriftPy does not support generating module with path in protocol 'c'
when I tried to print include_dir, which was
D:/test\thrift
I just cannot import libray at all
help me

I had the same problem with thriftpy, the problem on windows is an absolute path is like C:\foo\bar.thrift
But, the way the thrift library parses the file, it detects the C: as if it were a protocol like http: or https:
Its pretty easy to workaround you just have to strip the first two characters from the path with a slice like path[2:]
Just slice when you call thriftpy.load or in the library file
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\thriftpy\parser__init__.py", line 30
path = "C:\foo\bar.thrift"
thrift.load(path[2:], module_name, include_dirs=include_dirs,
include_dir=include_dir)
OR
You can go a bit deeper and make the same change that I already submitted as a patch on the github page... perhaps it will be incorporated in the next version of thrift.
File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\thriftpy\parser\parser.py", line 488
- if url_scheme == '':
+ if len(url_scheme) <= 1:
My justification of why this change is valid is in the pull request. If its incorporated then you wont have to worry about making the same change again when you update the library. If not then just strip the two characters again.
Update:
Thriftpy Version 1: the parser fix is now on line 547: elif len(url_scheme) <= 1:
Thriftpy Version 2: the fix has already been merged.

I was encountering the same error with impyla on an Anaconda Python 3.6 distribution on Windows. Instead of installing using pip, I was able to get it working using:
conda install -c anaconda impyla
https://anaconda.org/anaconda/impyla

Python 2.7.5 installation on Ubuntu, MAXREPEAT

This has been asked a couple of times but the answers do not make any sense at least to me. I have Ubuntu 12.04 and had to upgrade Python from default (2.7.3?) to 2.7.5 to get libraries I can use to compile modwsgi.
I obtained 2.7.5 sources, configured with --enable-shared, made and installed. A few obsolete sun audio etc libraries could not be built but otherwise the installation went through. Except that it doesn't work:
visti#ubuntu:~$ python
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 548, in <module>
main()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 530, in main
known_paths = addusersitepackages(known_paths)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 266, in addusersitepackages
user_site = getusersitepackages()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 241, in getusersitepackages
user_base = getuserbase() # this will also set USER_BASE
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site.py", line 231, in getuserbase
USER_BASE = get_config_var('userbase')
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/sysconfig.py", line 516, in get_config_var
return get_config_vars().get(name)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/sysconfig.py", line 449, in get_config_vars
import re
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/re.py", line 105, in <module>
import sre_compile
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/sre_compile.py", line 14, in <module>
import sre_parse
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/sre_parse.py", line 17, in <module>
from sre_constants import *
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/sre_constants.py", line 18, in <module>
from _sre import MAXREPEAT
ImportError: cannot import name MAXREPEAT
The suggested solution here ubuntu ImportError: cannot import name MAXREPEAT was to reconfigure "virtualenv", whatever it is. /usr/local/bin has an ancient script named virtualenv but it tries to run python as well and doesn't work.
Someone suggested the problem might be related to using old Python modules as MAXREPEAT appeared in 2.7.4. To counter this I removed everything related to Python with rm -rf (/usr/bin/python*, /usr/lib/python*, /usr/local/lib/python*, /usr/local/bin/python*, did make clean, make, make install to 2.7.5.
Still the same result. Now I don't have a working version of Python anymore. Is there any way to fix this or should I try reinstalling Ubuntu Python packages if they have 2.7.5 available?
Hannu

Just battled the same problem. Ended up deleting the entire /usr/local/lib/python2.7 install path just to get back to the previous working version.
Also be sure to remove /usr/local/lib/python2.7-config, then reinstall python. Worked for me anyway.

This usually happens when you mix and match libpython.so versions with python interpreter versions. If nuking your install paths didnt help, check these environment variables.
$PYTHONHOME $PYTHONINCLUDE $PYTHONLIB $PYTHONLIBSTATIC $PYTHONPATH
Make sure what they point to were all deleted as well. And then reinstall.
You can also try and install python to a home directory, by configuring the -prefix variable to point to a home dir.
make configure -prefix=$HOME/mypython`
Then make sure you set those above variables to the new home directory python resides in.

The way I fixed this was by searching my system for other instances of the sre_constants.py file. Then see if the location of those files is referenced in your user or system $PATH. If so, remove that location configuration from your $PATH. Rerun python to see if that fixed it.
In my case, it seemed that Python is referencing the wrong location which does not does not support MAXREPEAT.

python using easy_install ImportError: No module named _md5

I searched a lot and did not find any answer to this problem =(
I have a CentOS 5 as a server, following this How To:
http://wiki.osqa.net/display/docs/RHEL%2C+CentOS+5+Installation+Guide#RHEL%2CCentOS5InstallationGuide-Python
I'm able to install python 2.6 separated from the yum version. But when I run ./easy_install ElementTree I get this strange error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./easy_install", line 9, in <module>
load_entry_point('distribute==0.6.14', 'console_scripts', 'easy_install')()
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 305, in load_entry_point
return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 2244, in load_entry_point
return ep.load()
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pkg_resources.py", line 1954, in load
entry = __import__(self.module_name, globals(),globals(), ['__name__'])
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools/command/easy_install.py", line 24, in <module>
from setuptools.package_index import PackageIndex
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools/package_index.py", line 2, in <module>
import sys, os.path, re, urlparse, urllib2, shutil, random, socket, cStringIO
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/urllib2.py", line 93, in <module>
import hashlib
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/hashlib.py", line 136, in <module>
md5 = __get_builtin_constructor('md5')
File "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib/python2.6/hashlib.py", line 63, in __get_builtin_constructor
import _md5
ImportError: No module named _md5
I do not understand python and have no idea how to fix this issue, I'm trying to install OSQA to run a phpBB support forum for another country.
Thanks for any help, best regard's.

My guess having had a similar issue on CentOS before, is that the ld path for the new Python isn't set, and it can't find its loadable modules folder.
The 3rd code block on this blog post shows setting an ld path for an opt Python (though it is 2.7): http://toey.tc20.net/2010/08/04/install-python-2-7-gevent-on-centos-5-x86_64/
I would assume that an installer would have done this as part of the install step, but maybe the blog post above will be of some help.

I had the same problem and found that the issue is unrelated to _md5.so, but instead that hashlib is failing to import _hashlib.so within a try block, then getting to a different and normally unused section of code (where the _md5 problem shows up). Try:
import _hashlib.so
I got something like:
ImportError: <PATH>/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_hashlib.so: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied
I googled that and found http://www.quantumwise.com/forum/index.php?topic=16.0 which says you need to do:
chcon -t texrel_shlib_t <PATH>/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_hashlib.so
This worked for me.

Activepython 2.6 seems to have some problem in their latest build. please check for its former release.

I also encounter the same issue like you, I fix it after I add the lib path of python where the module will be installed.
It is really caused by LD_LIBRARY_PATH, please try to add "/opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib" into your LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /opt/ActivePython-2.6/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Credit to http://johnsofteng.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/python-importerror-no-module-named-_md5/
I met the similar problem on Redhat 6.4, python binary (2.7.x) packages is copied from other already installed system (which is built from source).
The problem is the _hashlib.so, which miss the libssl.so.0.9.8
bash-4.1# ldd /proj/application/tools/python2.7/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload/_hashlib.so
linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fff51d6f000)
libssl.so.0.9.8 => not found
libcrypto.so.0.9.8 => /usr/lib64/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 (0x00007f9a69746000)
libpython2.7.so.1.0 => /proj/application/tools/python2.7/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 (0x00007f9a6936b000)
I just install missed package and soft link to the library.
bash-4.1# yum install -y tar openssh-clients
bash-4.1# ln -s /usr/lib64/libssl.so.0.9.8e /usr/lib64/libssl.so.0.9.8
Then the setuptool installation is successful