"No module named catkin_pkg.package" error during Catkin make

Question

I am following the tutorial in http://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Tutorials/InstallingandConfiguringROSEnvironment

After installing ROS-indigo..I tried

$ mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws/src
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/src
$ catkin_init_workspace
$ cd ~/catkin_ws/
$ catkin_make

But cmake command failed !!

chaluvad@nth:~/catkin_ws$ catkin_make
Base path: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws
Source space: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/src
Build space: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build
Devel space: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/devel
Install space: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/install
####
#### Running command: "cmake /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/src -DCATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX=/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/devel -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/install -G Unix Makefiles" in "/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build"
####
-- Using CATKIN_DEVEL_PREFIX: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/devel
-- Using CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH: /opt/ros/indigo
-- This workspace overlays: /opt/ros/indigo
-- Using PYTHON_EXECUTABLE: /usr/local/bin/python
-- Using Debian Python package layout
-- Using empy: /usr/bin/empy
-- Using CATKIN_ENABLE_TESTING: ON
-- Call enable_testing()
-- Using CATKIN_TEST_RESULTS_DIR: /home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build/test_results
-- Found gtest sources under '/usr/src/gtest': gtests will be built
-- Using Python nosetests: /usr/bin/nosetests-2.7
ImportError: "from catkin_pkg.package import parse_package" failed: No module named catkin_pkg.package
Make sure that you have installed "catkin_pkg", it is up to date and on the PYTHONPATH.
CMake Error at /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/safe_execute_process.cmake:11 (message):
  execute_process(/usr/local/bin/python
  "/opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/parse_package_xml.py"
  "/opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/../package.xml"
  "/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build/catkin/catkin_generated/version/package.cmake")
  returned error code 1
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/catkin_package_xml.cmake:63 (safe_execute_process)
  /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/all.cmake:151 (_catkin_package_xml)
  /opt/ros/indigo/share/catkin/cmake/catkinConfig.cmake:20 (include)
  CMakeLists.txt:52 (find_package)


-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "/home/chaluvad/catkin_ws/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".
Invoking "cmake" failed
chaluvad@nth:~/catkin_ws$

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Originally posted by BhanuKiran.Chaluvadi on ROS Answers with karma: 241 on 2016-12-17

Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by gvdhoorn on 2016-12-17:
Please tell us how you installed ROS. Any tutorials you followed? catkin_pkg is a base package and should have been installed for you.

Using PYTHON_EXECUTABLE:/usr/local/bin/python

are you using some custom version of Python? Built from source?

Comment by BhanuKiran.Chaluvadi on 2016-12-17:
Hi, I just followed instructions from http://wiki.ros.org/indigo/Installation/Ubuntu

Answer 1

Your version of python is in /usr/local/bin/python ; this means that at some point you've installed a custom version of python, and you're not using the system's version.

Your custom version of python probably isn't finding the system-installed python libraries. The general options here are to either remove the custom version of python, or install the required python packages where it can find them. Which option is better depends on why you installed a custom version, and whether you're still using it.

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Originally posted by ahendrix with karma: 47576 on 2016-12-18

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1