ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wheel' during pythonnet installation on Python3.8

Question

I am installing pythonnet using pip install pythonnet in python 3.8. I am running into this ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wheel' error. I did some research and I could not find a fix for this. Is there a way to fix this issue? Below is the error that I am getting.

Thanks in advance!

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C:\Users\user165>cd C://Python38

C:\Python38>pip install pythonnet
Collecting pythonnet
  Using cached https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/4a/0a/5964a5a1fdf207fab8e718edd1f8d3578e0681577fe9abe0d9006f9718c2/pythonnet-2.4.0.tar.gz
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'c:\python38\python.exe' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\user165\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-b8so9ms2\\pythonnet\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\user165\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-b8so9ms2\\pythonnet\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base pip-egg-info
         cwd: C:\Users\user165\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-b8so9ms2\pythonnet\
    Complete output (5 lines):
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "C:\Users\user165\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-b8so9ms2\pythonnet\setup.py", line 18, in <module>
        from wheel import bdist_wheel
    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'wheel'
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.
WARNING: You are using pip version 19.2.3, however version 19.3.1 is available.
You should consider upgrading via the 'python -m pip install --upgrade pip' command.

C:\Python38>

Monseigneur

My stock answer to these questions is to try Python 3.7. There seem to be quite a few modules that aren't ready for 3.8 yet. – Jermainejerman

Installing python 3.7 fixed the issue. Thanks. – Monseigneur

Answer 1

Either work in a virtual environment (venv), which will make sure that wheel is installed, or install it explicitly yourself, together with setuptools:

python -m pip install wheel setuptools

Kieserite

This errored out as well. with the error: no module named 'pycparser' – Monseigneur

python -m pip install pycparser, but I'm rather surprised that either wheel or setuptools would depend on that. – Kieserite

It does take time for modules in python to be ready for newer versions of python and sometimes it can take up to five years if the developers are really slack – Rollway

Answer 2

I found this question when I got the same error in a virtual python environment. The solution was to run pip install --upgrade pip before installing my actual dependency.

Danner

Answer 3

Try to install all dependencies first, e.g. via pip install -r requirements.txt. Then, issue as a second command pip install pythonnet.

This solved it in my case (Centos7, Python 3.6.8, pythonnet 2.4.0)

Fop