apt-get install python3-venv is not working

Question

I am using a chromebook, using Debian. I need to run the terminal command python -m venv env, but when I use it, I get the errors

The virtual environment was not created successfully because ensurepip is not
available.  On Debian/Ubuntu systems, you need to install the python3-venv
package using the following command.

    apt-get install python3-venv

You may need to use sudo with that command.  After installing the python3-venv
package, recreate your virtual environment.

Failing command: ['/home/jacob/env/bin/python3', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']

so I run apt-get install python3-venv

but get the errors

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), are you root?

Can anyone help with this?

Detector

Answer 1

As it says,

• "You may need to use sudo with that command."
• "are you root?"

Do sudo apt-get install python3-venv to run the apt-get command as root.

After that, you should not need to run other commands as root (or using sudo) unless there are some system-level library dependencies for your Python dependencies. (You shouldn't need to apt-get install any other python3 packages.)

Vitrain

If I'm not mistaken and you are looking for the Windows version of this command try: python3 -m venv /path/to/new/virtual/environment – Crumpton

Answer 2

It is:

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

Cp

Answer 3

It looks like a permission issue.

Try:

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

Liebowitz

It doesn't give me python3.9 though :( – Funeral

Answer 4

To install any package using apt you must be a root user to install and remove any package. Once the installation is done then any user can use that package if you have allowed them to access it (By default whenever root install a package other users gets permission to run it)

So to solve this problem try:

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

or

sudo su
apt-get install python3-venv

By using the sudo su you become the root user. So when you are a root user you don't have to append the sudo before your command.

Bender

Answer 5

You need to install a specific version.

I used this and solved my problem for python3.10:

 $ sudo apt-get install python3.10-venv

This worked for me.

Proud

Answer 6

Just do:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend

and try again

Westnorthwest

Answer 7

If someone is facing with this issue, just run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install python3.10-venv

Where python3.10-venv stands for python3.10 in this example

Burgenland