The required version of distribute (>=0.6.49) is not available?

Question

I tried to install the SoundCloud API using PIP (pip install soundcloud), to get this error message,

Downloading/unpacking soundcloud Running setup.py egg_info for package soundcloud The required version of distribute (>=0.6.49) is not available, and can't be installed while this script is running. Please install a more recent version first, using 'easy_install -U distribute'.

(Currently using distribute 0.6.24dev-r0 (/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages))
Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info:
The required version of distribute (>=0.6.49) is not available,

and can't be installed while this script is running. Please

install a more recent version first, using

'easy_install -U distribute'.

(Currently using distribute 0.6.24dev-r0 (/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages))

I tried as reccomended, running easy_install -U distribute, to find this,

error: can't create or remove files in install directory

The following error occurred while trying to add or remove files in the installation directory:

[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/test-easy-install-1661.pth'

The installation directory you specified (via --install-dir, --prefix, or the distutils default setting) was:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/

Perhaps your account does not have write access to this directory? If the installation directory is a system-owned directory, you may need to sign in as the administrator or "root" account. If you do not have administrative access to this machine, you may wish to choose a different installation directory, preferably one that is listed in your PYTHONPATH environment variable.

For information on other options, you may wish to consult the documentation at:

http://packages.python.org/distribute/easy_install.html

Please make the appropriate changes for your system and try again.

I tried going to the link at the bottom, to get a 404 message. What can I do to get everything back in order?

Answer 1

Try running:

sudo easy_install -U distribute

sudo allows you to run commands as the 'root' user to access files and directories your regular user account may not have access to.