app engine and appcfg import errors

If you get an error that looks like the below, be sure that you are importing the correct version of django(which is to say, that if you are using the builtin version, be sure you are not also importing another version of django from your sitepackages). Appcfg automatically follows all symlinks and packages up everything on your pythonpath, and the import order in production is different (actually reversed!) from that in development.

I solved this problem by deactivating my virtualenv whenever I deploy.

facepalms: 8 (3 hours of nonsense for a 1-line fix!)

Traceback (most recent call last): File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/runtime/wsgi.py", line 193, in Handle result = handler(self._environ, self._StartResponse) File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 232, in __call__ self.load_middleware() File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 40, in load_middleware mod = import_module(mw_module) File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module __import__(name) File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/middleware/transaction.py", line 1, in from django.db import transaction File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/db/__init__.py", line 77, in connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS] File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/db/utils.py", line 92, in __getitem__ backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE']) File "/base/python27_runtime/python27_lib/versions/third_party/django-1.2/django/db/utils.py", line 50, in load_backend raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg) ImproperlyConfigured: 'google.appengine.ext.django.backends.rdbms' isn't an available database backend. Try using django.db.backends.XXX, where XXX is one of: 'dummy', 'mysql', 'oracle', 'postgresql', 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'sqlite3' Error was: cannot import name backends

more ubuntu fights

so I know I thought I fixed my virtualenv and virtualenvwrapper problems recently, but apt-get wasn't letting me install anything! This error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
ImportError: No module named virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader
dpkg: error processing install-info (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
install-info

So it seemed like it had something to do with install-info, whatever that is, but NO - I'd forgotten about some lines in my /etc/environment file that had to do with virtualenv, before I started using .bashrc. took em out, all better.
facepalms: 2

upgrading to ubuntu natty

annoyingness right off the bat. maybe a 7 on the facepalm scale.

1. the login screen allows you to choose between unity and classic, but only after you click the login name to get the password box out. before then, no indication of any possible choices on the bottom bar.

2. loaded up classic, but compiz settings were off.

3. my ATI graphics seem choppy (ouch).

4. virtualenvwrapper acting funky - specifically,

ImportError: No module named virtualenvwrapper.hook_loader

even though things generally seemed to work. Wow, I'm going to have to figure out how to inline code on blogspot here.

Anyways, the problem turned out to be that natty installed python 2.7.1 as default. Nobody warned me! I added the line

export VIRTUALENVWRAPPER_PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2.6

To send everybody back to python2.6. Problem solved.

Unity isn't super annoying or buggy yet, but I'll give a shoutout if it becomes so.