Certbot dependency problem on Debian 9

[khalismur]

Hello there! I am looking into getting a certificate for my django app and followed the certbot install instructions described here.

As additional information: I needed Python 3.7 for my project, so I compiled it from source. Have also the newest versions of pip, django and gunicorn installed with pip into a virtualenv.

Installing certbot with

sudo apt-get install python3-certbot-nginx -t stretch-backports

works but then I get the following error when running certbot:

The 'certbot==0.25.0' distribution was not found and is required by the application.

Output of apt search certbot

[...]
python3-certbot/stretch-backports,now 0.25.0-1~bpo9+1 all [installed,automatic]
main library for certbot
[...]
python3-certbot-nginx/stretch-backports,now 0.25.0-2~bpo9+1 all [installed]
Nginx plugin for Certbo

My domain is:

scheer.xyz

I ran this command:

sudo certbot --nginx
or
certbot --version
or any certbot command...

It produced this output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/certbot", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3088, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3072, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3101, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 574, in _build_master
    ws.require(__requires__)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 892, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 778, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'certbot==0.25.0' distribution was not found and is required by the application

My web server is (include version):
nginx 1.10.3

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):
Debian 9

My hosting provider, if applicable, is:
vultr

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know):
yes

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel):
no

Any help will be much appreciated!
Cheers,

[stevenzhu]

Hi,

Could you please run the below command?
sudo certbot --version (apologize for the typo)

Thank you

[khalismur]

Hello, thanks for replying!
Here it is:

sudo certbot --version

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/certbot", line 6, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3088, in <module>
    @_call_aside
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3072, in _call_aside
    f(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3101, in _initialize_master_working_set
    working_set = WorkingSet._build_master()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 574, in _build_master
    ws.require(__requires__)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 892, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 778, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req, requirers)
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: The 'certbot==0.25.0' distribution was not found and is required by the application

[stevenzhu]

Hi,

Could you please try to reinstall certbot?

Warning: please backup certbot directory in case of data loss.

sudo apt-get install certbot -t stretch-backports --reinstall

Thank you

[khalismur]

Hello,

Just reinstalled it with the suggested command. I get the same output from certbot --version like before

Thanks

[stevenzhu]

Hi,

Could you please show the following command outputs?

dpkg -l | grep certbot
pip freeze

(If the output is too long, please upload it to a pastebin(online pastebin) and share a link to that pastebin)

Source: https://github.com/certbot/certbot/issues/5513

Thank you

[mnordhoff]

If you run “head -1 /usr/bin/certbot”, what Python executable is it using?

if /usr/bin/python3 has been replaced, it will be lucky if Certbot is the only thing that’s malfunctioning… It looks like some sort of path issue that probably affects any Python 3 package installed via apt.

Custom Python builds are only safe if they’re completely separate from most software.

[khalismur]

Hello guys, thanks for the replies! Here are the outputs of the requested commands:

$ dpkg -l | grep certbot

ii  certbot                           0.25.0-1~bpo9+1                all          automatically configure HTTPS using Let's Encrypt
ii  python3-certbot                   0.25.0-1~bpo9+1                all          main library for certbot
ii  python3-certbot-nginx             0.25.0-2~bpo9+1                all          Nginx plugin for Certbot

$ pip freeze

certifi==2018.10.15
pipenv==2018.10.13
virtualenv==16.0.0
virtualenv-clone==0.4.0

(virtualenv) $ pip freeze

Django==2.1.2
gunicorn==19.9.0
psycopg2-binary==2.7.5
pytz==2018.7

$ head -1 /usr/bin/certbot

#!/usr/bin/python3

It must be noted that I did indeed replace the system's default python3 bin with the following command after installing python3.7:
$ update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python3 python3 /usr/local/bin/python3 10

Now $ python3 --version gives me Python 3.7.1 instead of Debian's standard Python 3.5. I thought it was properly installed as my django app works fine, as does gunicorn and postgres through psycopg2.

Cheers,