Why is Python easy_install not working on my Mac?

1. Check your /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin for easy_install installations and remove any old script:

   sudo rm -f /usr/bin/easy_install*
   sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/easy_install*
   

2. Download and run distribute:

   curl -O https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/oodt/tools/oodtsite.publisher/trunk/distribute_setup.py
   
   sudo python distribute_setup.py
   sudo rm distribute_setup.py
   

3. Try again, and enjoy. E.g.:

   sudo easy_install pip
   

I suspect the easiest way you can get easy_install working again is to install distribute, which is an improved version of distutils that bundles it's own version of easy_install. Installation is simple:

curl -O http://python-distribute.org/distribute_setup.py
/usr/bin/python2.6 distribute_setup.py

I had the same problem just after installing the new Operating System (Lion OSX). After install python and execute it

sudo easy_install ipython
ipython

I got the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/ipython", line 8, in <module>
    load_entry_point('ipython==0.10.2', 'console_scripts', 'ipython')()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 318, in load_entry_point
    return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2220, in load_entry_point
    raise ImportError("Entry point %r not found" % ((group,name),))
ImportError: Entry point ('console_scripts', 'ipython') not found

Then I realize it was a permission problem. If I execute the ipython script as sudo it worked.

sudo ipython

So I changed the ownership from root to my user () of the folder /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/

sudo chown -R <your_user>:wheel /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/

Use change ownership only if you don't have several accounts that uses python.

I hope it work for you.

Best