Broken with Python 3 and Ubuntu 18.04

This is probably not a bug of Pipenv per se (virtualenv -p python3 had a similar issue), however opening just in case this helps someone.

Running the latest version of Python 3 and Ubuntu 18.04, I was getting the following error:

pipenv --python 3
Creating a virtualenv for this project...
Pipfile: /home/licensing/cimtas_certificate_requests/Pipfile
Using /usr/bin/python3 (3.6.5) to create virtualenv...
⠋Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 25, in <module>
    import distutils.spawn
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.spawn'
Error while trying to remove the /home/licensing/.local/share/virtualenvs/cimtas_certificate_requests-U5jN4dWL env:
No such file or directory

Virtualenv location:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/pipenv", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 722, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 697, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 1043, in invoke
    return Command.invoke(self, ctx)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 895, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/core.py", line 535, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/vendor/click/decorators.py", line 17, in new_func
    return f(get_current_context(), *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/cli.py", line 294, in cli
    three=three, python=python, warn=True, site_packages=site_packages, pypi_mirror=pypi_mirror
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 614, in ensure_project
    path_to_python = which('python') or which('py')
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pipenv/core.py", line 115, in which
    p = os.path.join(location, 'bin', command)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/posixpath.py", line 70, in join
    elif path == '' or path.endswith('/'):
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'endswith'

For virtualenv - python3, I was getting the following, which helped me get to the bottom of the issue:

virtualenv -p python3 .venv
Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/bin/python3
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/virtualenv.py", line 25, in <module>
    import distutils.spawn
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.spawn'

Installing python3-distutils solved the issue.

[redliu312]

I run into the same issue. My os version is Ubuntu 18.04 When I tried to use

pipenv --python 3

I got the same error. I use

sudp apt-get install python3-distutils

to solve this problem

[uranusjr]

Actually it is not virtualenv either, it is Ubuntu. Their built-in Python is broken: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt-btrfs-snapshot/+bug/1763923

As a general rule: Don’t pip-install things to the system Python, almost ever. The system distribution sometimes introduces bugs we cannot anticipate, and cause unnecessary troubles.