Ubuntu – How to make side-by-side Python 2.7 and 3.2 installs on Ubuntu 12.04,

It seems that your installation of setuptools is obsolete.

If you want your "easy_install" match your updated python version, follow these steps:

• Download the corresponding .egg file at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools#files
• Run it as if it were a shell script: sh setuptools-0.6c9-py2.7.egg

This will install the new "easy_install" executable, compatible with your current version of python.

Hope this helps.

(more details at http://pypi.python.org/pypi/setuptools#cygwin-mac-os-x-linux-other)

As you mentioned in the comment, ls -l /usb/bin/python* shows:

 lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 75 28 Jul 16:27 /usr/bin/python2.5 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/python2.5 
 lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 82 28 Jul 16:27 /usr/bin/python2.5-config -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/bin/python2.5-conf??ig 
 lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 75 28 Jul 16:27 /usr/bin/python2.6 -> ../../System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/bin/python2.6 
 lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 82 28 Jul 16:27 /usr/bin/python2.6-config

Note that there is no /usr/bin/python.

As @Wouter mentioned, you'll want to create a symlink:

ln -s /usr/bin/python2.6 /usr/bin/python

That'll create a symlink (think of it as a shortcut in Windows), from /usr/bin/python to /usr/bin/python2.6

For a bit more detail, you mention the first line of /usr/bin/easy_install is :

#!/usr/bin/python   

This is commonly known as the shebang line, and tells the script which interpretor to use - in this case it's trying to use /usr/bin/python, which, as we've seen from the ls command, does not exist, which is why we create a symlink