[Distutils] Distutils has no module named util, or is it a package problem?

[Ben Bangert]

I'm getting the following very odd behavior when downloading and  
installing from subversion for Paste lately. The error makes it tough  
to know if this is a Paste problem, a local problem (I've had it on  
two different OSX machines now), or a setuptools problem.

To replicate,
sudo easy_install -U -D http://svn.pythonpaste.org/Paste/trunk/

Downloading http://svn.pythonpaste.org/Paste/trunk/
Doing subversion checkout from http://svn.pythonpaste.org/Paste/ 
trunk/ to /tmp/easy_install-SIB1qx/trunk
Processing trunk
Running setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/easy_install-SIB1qx/ 
trunk/egg-dist-tmp-m-NhjS
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/local/bin/easy_install", line 7, in ?
     sys.exit(
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 1181, in main
     setup(script_args = ['-q','easy_install', '-v']+argv, **kw)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/distutils/core.py", line 149, in setup
     dist.run_commands()
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/distutils/dist.py", line 946, in run_commands
     self.run_command(cmd)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/distutils/dist.py", line 966, in run_command
     cmd_obj.run()
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 230, in run
     self.easy_install(spec, not self.no_deps)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 317, in easy_install
     return self.install_item(spec, download, tmpdir, deps)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 343, in install_item
     self.process_distribution(spec, dists[0], deps, "Using")
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 397, in process_distribution
     WorkingSet([]).resolve(
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/pkg_resources.py",  
line 481, in resolve
     dist = best[req.key] = env.best_match(req, self, installer)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/pkg_resources.py",  
line 635, in best_match
     return self.obtain(req, installer) # try and download/install
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/pkg_resources.py",  
line 647, in obtain
     return installer(requirement)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 317, in easy_install
     return self.install_item(spec, download, tmpdir, deps)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 338, in install_item
     dists = self.install_eggs(spec, download, tmpdir)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 573, in install_eggs
     return self.build_and_install(setup_script, setup_base)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 848, in build_and_install
     self.run_setup(setup_script, setup_base, args)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/command/ 
easy_install.py", line 837, in run_setup
     run_setup(setup_script, args)
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/ 
sandbox.py", line 26, in run_setup
     DirectorySandbox(setup_dir).run(
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/ 
sandbox.py", line 63, in run
     return func()
   File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/ 
python2.4/site-packages/setuptools-0.6a7-py2.4.egg/setuptools/ 
sandbox.py", line 29, in <lambda>
     {'__file__':setup_script, '__name__':'__main__'}
   File "setup.py", line 12, in ?
ImportError: No module named util

Thanks,
Ben