Getting “Error loading MySQLdb module: No module n

Question

This is a much discussed issue for OSX 10.6 users, but I haven't been able to find a solution that works. Here's my setup:

Python 2.6.1 64bit Django 1.2.1 MySQL 5.1.47 osx10.6 64bit

I create a virtualenvwrapper with --no-site-packages, then installed Django. When I activate the virtualenv and run python manage.py syncdb, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 11, in <module>
  execute_manager(settings)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 438, in execute_manager
  utility.execute()
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 379, in execute
  self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 257, in fetch_command
  klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 67, in load_command_class
  module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
  __import__(name)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 7, in <module>
from django.core.management.sql import custom_sql_for_model, emit_post_sync_signal
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/core/management/sql.py", line 5, in <module>
from django.contrib.contenttypes import generic
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/contrib/contenttypes/generic.py", line 6, in <module>
  from django.db import connection
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 75, in <module>
  connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS]
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 91, in __getitem__
  backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 32, in load_backend
  return import_module('.base', backend_name)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
  __import__(name)
File "/Users/joerobinson/.virtualenvs/dj_tut/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 14, in <module>
  raise ImproperlyConfigured("Error loading MySQLdb module: %s" % e)
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: No module named MySQLdb

I've also installed the MySQL for Python adapter, but to no avail (maybe I installed it improperly?).

Anyone dealt with this before?

Answer 1

Install Command Line Tools Works for me:

xcode-select --install

Answer 2

Try this the commands below. They work for me:

brew install mysql-connector-c 
pip install MySQL-python

Answer 3

pip install mysql-python

raised an error:

EnvironmentError: mysql_config not found

sudo apt-get install python-mysqldb

fixed the problem.

Answer 4

How I got it working:

virtualenv -p python3.5 env/test

After sourcing my env:

pip install pymysql
pip install django

Then, I ran the startproject and inside the manage.py, I added this:

+ try:
+     import pymysql
+     pymysql.install_as_MySQLdb()
+ except:
+     pass

Also, updated this inside settings:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': 'foobar_db',
        'USER': 'foobaruser',
        'PASSWORD': 'foobarpwd',
    }
}

I also have configparser==3.5.0 installed in my virtualenv, not sure if that was required or not...

Hope it helps,

Answer 5

This issue was the result of an incomplete / incorrect installation of the MySQL for Python adapter. Specifically, I had to edit the path to the mysql_config file to point to /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config - discussed in greater detail in this article: http://dakrauth.com/blog/entry/python-and-django-setup-mac-os-x-leopard/

Answer 6

I made the upgrade to OSX Mavericks and Pycharm 3 and start to get this error, i used pip and easy install and got the error:

command'/usr/bin/clang' failed with exit status 1.

So i need to update to Xcode 5 and tried again to install using pip.

pip install mysql-python

That fix all the problems.