Install problem - ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'

[kenwebb]

I am using Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS on a desktop computer.
Running "python3 --version" in a terminal window results in: Python 3.12.3

I am using Thonny 4.0.1 to run a simple https://github.com/pimoroni/qwstpad-micropython example, where I have "from qwstpad import QwSTPad". My device is a new Pico 2 w from Pimoroni.

In Thonny I selected Tools > Manage packages...
and did "Search on PyPI" for "qwstpad-micropython".

Thonny found "No results." and suggested "Try opening the package directly: qwstpad-micropython". I clicked on the name and got:
qwstpad-micropython
Latest stable version: 0.0.1
Summary: Micropython library for the Pimoroni QwSTPad
Author: Could not find the package info from PyPI. Error code: ...

I went ahead and clicked "Install". It popped up a window that displayed "Installing 'qwstpad-micropython' Error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
  File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/__main__.py", line 29, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main import main as _main
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main.py", line 9, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.autocompletion import autocomplete
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/autocompletion.py", line 10, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.main_parser import create_main_parser
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/main_parser.py", line 8, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli import cmdoptions
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/cmdoptions.py", line 23, in <module>
    from pip._internal.cli.parser import ConfigOptionParser
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/cli/parser.py", line 12, in <module>
    from pip._internal.configuration import Configuration, ConfigurationError
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/configuration.py", line 26, in <module>
    from pip._internal.utils.logging import getLogger
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/utils/logging.py", line 27, in <module>
    from pip._internal.utils.misc import ensure_dir
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/utils/misc.py", line 39, in <module>
    from pip._internal.locations import get_major_minor_version
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/locations/__init__.py", line 14, in <module>
    from . import _distutils, _sysconfig
  File "/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pip/_internal/locations/_distutils.py", line 9, in <module>
    from distutils.cmd import Command as DistutilsCommand
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'
Error Command '['/home/ken/.cache/pipkin/workspaces/10a20aff63511e905766381f44b29d23/bin/python3', '-I', '-m', 'pip', '--no-color', '--disable-pip-version-check', '--trusted-host', '127.0.0.1', 'install', '--no-compile', '--use-pep517', '--upgrade-strategy', 'only-if-needed', 'qwstpad-micropython', '--index-url', 'http://127.0.0.1:36628']' returned non-zero exit status 1.

Note the error: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils'
A web search for this error tells me that 'distutils' was deprecated in 3.10 and removed from Python3 with version 3.12, the version I use.

I am not a Python expert. Please advise what I should do to get my qwstpad-micropython program working. Thank you.

[helgibbons]

Might be worth trying updating to the most recent version of Thonny? There were recent PyPi changes that caused the 'Manage Packages' search to not work properly:

thonny/thonny#3401