Can't find a working Python installation

[khoipkv]

Hello,
Can anyone help point me in the right direction on how to fix this error? Or what might have caused it?

This is someone else's work, and it works on their computer. We have different Python versions, so I have tried changing my Python to match theirs (3.6.9), but that also didn't work.
We have the same version of scons.
When I tried running scons with the original gem5 (the one pulled from this repository), it worked fine. Not with this person's gem5.

This is running on Fedora 40.

Thanks a lot.

[Harshil2107]

Hi, my first guess would be that maybe the PATH for the updated python version is not set? or scons is not able to find python at the specified path.

[LujhCoconut]

Maybe you can try /usr/bin/env python3 $(which scons) build/ARM/gem5.opt

[SerenityLJY]

thanku！！

[khoipkv]

Hi, thanks for all your suggestions. I'm running just "scons" in most of my screenshots so it's faster to test the solution.

@LujhCoconut
I have tried that command, but that didn't work as well.

@Harshil2107
I believe the updated version of Python is in my PATH:

I also tried running a virtual environment with another Python version, but that also didn't seem to work.

[Gorgeous-Patrick]

Mine does not work either.

[khoipkv]

I fixed the problem by simply running gem5 in a Ubuntu 20 container

[ConvolutedDog]

This problem is easy to encounter when using virtual python environment of anaconda/miniconda. My solution on CentOS is as follows:

Assuming you use conda to create one virtual environment gem5-venv:

conda create -n gem5-venv python=3.9 conda activate gem5-venv $(which pip) install SCons

Then you can run the following bash script (please remember to change YourUsername and your gcc/g++ path):

#!/bin/bash export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/YourUsername/miniconda3/envs/gem5-venv/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH # Change to your own username! # Set common variables CC="/opt/rh/devtoolset-10/root/bin/gcc" # Change to your own path! CXX="/opt/rh/devtoolset-10/root/bin/g++" # Change to your own path! SCONS_CMD="python3 $(which scons)" BUILD_DIR="build/X86" JOBS=32 # First, build gem5.opt CC="$CC" CXX="$CXX" $SCONS_CMD $BUILD_DIR/gem5.opt -j $JOBS # Only build compile_commands.json if it doesn't exist if [ ! -f "$BUILD_DIR/compile_commands.json" ]; then CC="$CC" CXX="$CXX" $SCONS_CMD $BUILD_DIR/compile_commands.json else echo "$BUILD_DIR/compile_commands.json already exists, skipping..." fi

Using clang/clang++ can easily cause gem5.opt to not be linked successfully, as mentioned in #1722, so here I specify CC/CXX as gcc/g++. At the same time, I found that if it defaults to clang/clang++, this issue (Can't find a working Python installation) may also occur, but I don’t have time to find out why.

Hope it helps you!

[ramwin]

I met the same problem.

[ramwin]

copy this scripts to your <virtualenv>/bin/python-config

# Source - https://stackoverflow.com/a/48946977 # Posted by András Aszódi # Retrieved 2025-11-12, License - CC BY-SA 3.0 #!/usr/bin/env python3 """ This python-config script was taken from a virtual environment created by `virtualenv`. The only change is the hash-bang line. The user shall copy this to ${VENV}/bin during setup. :author: unknown + AA :date: 2018-02-23 """ import sys import getopt import sysconfig valid_opts = ['prefix', 'exec-prefix', 'includes', 'libs', 'cflags', 'ldflags', 'help'] if sys.version_info >= (3, 2): valid_opts.insert(-1, 'extension-suffix') valid_opts.append('abiflags') if sys.version_info >= (3, 3): valid_opts.append('configdir') def exit_with_usage(code=1): sys.stderr.write("Usage: {0} [{1}]\n".format( sys.argv[0], '|'.join('--'+opt for opt in valid_opts))) sys.exit(code) try: opts, args = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1:], '', valid_opts) except getopt.error: exit_with_usage() if not opts: exit_with_usage() pyver = sysconfig.get_config_var('VERSION') getvar = sysconfig.get_config_var opt_flags = [flag for (flag, val) in opts] if '--help' in opt_flags: exit_with_usage(code=0) for opt in opt_flags: if opt == '--prefix': print(sysconfig.get_config_var('prefix')) elif opt == '--exec-prefix': print(sysconfig.get_config_var('exec_prefix')) elif opt in ('--includes', '--cflags'): flags = ['-I' + sysconfig.get_path('include'), '-I' + sysconfig.get_path('platinclude')] if opt == '--cflags': flags.extend(getvar('CFLAGS').split()) print(' '.join(flags)) elif opt in ('--libs', '--ldflags'): abiflags = getattr(sys, 'abiflags', '') libs = ['-lpython' + pyver + abiflags] libs += getvar('LIBS').split() libs += getvar('SYSLIBS').split() # add the prefix/lib/pythonX.Y/config dir, but only if there is no # shared library in prefix/lib/. if opt == '--ldflags': if not getvar('Py_ENABLE_SHARED'): libs.insert(0, '-L' + getvar('LIBPL')) if not getvar('PYTHONFRAMEWORK'): libs.extend(getvar('LINKFORSHARED').split()) print(' '.join(libs)) elif opt == '--extension-suffix': ext_suffix = sysconfig.get_config_var('EXT_SUFFIX') if ext_suffix is None: ext_suffix = sysconfig.get_config_var('SO') print(ext_suffix) elif opt == '--abiflags': if not getattr(sys, 'abiflags', None): exit_with_usage() print(sys.abiflags) elif opt == '--configdir': print(sysconfig.get_config_var('LIBPL')) 

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42020937/why-pyvenv-does-not-install-python-config