bzr / python installation fubar

[Hal Burgiss]

This probably is not a bzr issue per se, but I was hoping someone here
might have some helpful advice. The problem, I think, is something is
screwed up with the python installation on an Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server. The system
has all updates applied. It has been upgraded from a CentOs server, and a
previous Ubuntu 6.06 server, so there is a chance something lingers from
previous installations (but I can't find it if so).

As far as I can tell at this point, it only seems to effect bzr (but
probably because there isn't much else python related going on). 

I have uninstalled, purged, reinstalled every python related package I could
find. This does not seem to effect anything. Multiple times.

Errors from an attempted checkout from one system to another:

bzr: ERROR: exceptions.ImportError: No module named unicodedata                                        

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 834, in run_bzr_catch_errors
    return run_bzr(argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 790, in run_bzr
    ret = run(*run_argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/commands.py", line 492, in run_argv_aliases
    return self.run(**all_cmd_args)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/builtins.py", line 1012, in run
    accelerator_tree, hardlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/branch.py", line 771, in create_checkout
    hardlink=hardlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/bzrdir.py", line 1242, in create_workingtree
    accelerator_tree=accelerator_tree, hardlink=hardlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/workingtree_4.py", line 1358, in initialize
    hardlink=hardlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/transform.py", line 1494, in build_tree
    return _build_tree(tree, wt, accelerator_tree, hardlink)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/transform.py", line 1598, in _build_tree
    result = tt.apply(no_conflicts=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/transform.py", line 1200, in apply
    modified_paths = self._apply_insertions(inventory_delta, mover)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/transform.py", line 1301, in _apply_insertions
    self.final_file_id(trans_id))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/inventory.py", line 1412, in make_entry
    name = ensure_normalized_name(name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/inventory.py", line 1431, in ensure_normalized_name
    norm_name, can_access = osutils.normalized_filename(name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/osutils.py", line 1037, in _inaccessible_normalized_filename
    normalized = unicodedata.normalize('NFC', unicode(path))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/lazy_import.py", line 106, in __getattribute__
    obj = _replace()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/lazy_import.py", line 89, in _replace
    obj = factory(self, scope, name)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/lazy_import.py", line 196, in _import
    module = __import__(module_python_path, scope, scope, [])
ImportError: No module named unicodedata

bzr 1.3.1 on python 2.5.2.final.0 (linux2)
arguments: ['/usr/bin/bzr', 'checkout', '--lightweight', 'sftp://admin.detailsbydesign.com/', '/']
encoding: 'UTF-8', fsenc: 'UTF-8', lang: 'en_US.UTF-8'
plugins:
  launchpad            /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/bzrlib/plugins/launchpad [unknown]

*** Bazaar has encountered an internal error.
    Please report a bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/bzr/+filebug
    including this traceback, and a description of what you
    were doing when the error occurred.

(I did report this.)

The checkout fails mid-stream with some files installed and some not. Updating
the checkout does not fix the brokenness.

If I run the python shell and 'import unicodedata' there are no error 
messages. 

Another error, this time re-installing python-central:

$ apt-get install --reinstall python-central

Preparing to replace python-central 0.6.7ubuntu0.1 (using .../python-central_0.6.7ubuntu0.1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement python-central ...
Setting up python-central (0.6.7ubuntu0.1) ...

Setting up bzr (1.3.1-1ubuntu0.1) ...
Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/py_compilefiles", line 3, in ?
    import os
ImportError: No module named os
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1891, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1885, in main
    rv = action.run(global_options)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1263, in run
    self.options.exclude, byte_compile_default=True)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 880, in install
    rt.byte_compile(linked_files, bc_option, exclude_regex, ignore_errors)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 175, in byte_compile
    fd.write(fn + '\n')
IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe
dpkg: error processing bzr (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Setting up python-crypto (2.0.1+dfsg1-2.1ubuntu1.1) ...
Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/py_compilefiles", line 3, in ?
    import os
ImportError: No module named os
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1891, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1885, in main
    rv = action.run(global_options)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 1263, in run
    self.options.exclude, byte_compile_default=True)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 880, in install
    rt.byte_compile(linked_files, bc_option, exclude_regex, ignore_errors)
  File "/usr/bin/pycentral", line 175, in byte_compile
    fd.write(fn + '\n')
IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe
dpkg: error processing python-crypto (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of python-paramiko:
 python-paramiko depends on python-crypto; however:
  Package python-crypto is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing python-paramiko (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 bzr
 python-crypto
 python-paramiko
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Any python related install/reinstallation generates similar types of errors. I'd
love to just start from scratch with python, but my attempts at that are
not working. Help!

-- 
Hal