Problem building 2.1 on Debian Linux 2.2.13/2.2.17

[Gerry Wiener]

After doing

./configure
make

the build stops with the following output:

...

gcc -c -g -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -I. -I./Include -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -DBUILD=`cat buildno` -o Modules/getbuildinfo.o ./Modules/getbuildinfo.c
rm -f libpython2.1.a
ar cr libpython2.1.a Modules/getbuildinfo.o
ar cr libpython2.1.a Parser/acceler.o Parser/grammar1.o Parser/listnode.o Parser/node.o Parser/parser.o Parser/parsetok.o Parser/tokenizer.o Parser/bitset.o Parser/metagrammar.o Parser/myreadline.o
ar cr libpython2.1.a Objects/abstract.o Objects/bufferobject.o Objects/cellobject.o Objects/classobject.o Objects/cobject.o Objects/complexobject.o Objects/fileobject.o Objects/floatobject.o Objects/frameobject.o Objects/funcobject.o Objects/intobject.o Objects/listobject.o Objects/longobject.o Objects/dictobject.o Objects/methodobject.o Objects/moduleobject.o Objects/object.o Objects/rangeobject.o Objects/sliceobject.o Objects/stringobject.o Objects/tupleobject.o Objects/typeobject.o Objects/unicodeobject.o Objects/unicodectype.o
ar cr libpython2.1.a Python/bltinmodule.o Python/exceptions.o Python/ceval.o Python/compile.o Python/codecs.o Python/errors.o Python/frozen.o Python/frozenmain.o Python/future.o Python/getargs.o Python/getcompiler.o Python/getcopyright.o Python/getmtime.o Python/getplatform.o Python/getversion.o Python/graminit.o Python/import.o Python/importdl.o Python/marshal.o Python/modsupport.o Python/mystrtoul.o Python/pyfpe.o Python/pystate.o Python/pythonrun.o Python/structmember.o Python/symtable.o Python/sysmodule.o Python/traceback.o Python/getopt.o Python/dynload_shlib.o Python/thread.o
ar cr libpython2.1.a Modules/config.o Modules/getpath.o Modules/main.o 
ar cr libpython2.1.a Modules/gcmodule.o  Modules/threadmodule.o  Modules/signalmodule.o  Modules/posixmodule.o  Modules/_sre.o
ranlib libpython2.1.a
gcc  -Xlinker -export-dynamic -o python \
                Modules/python.o \
                libpython2.1.a -lpthread -ldl  -lutil   -lm  
PYTHONPATH= ./python ./setup.py build
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./setup.py", line 9, in ?
    import sys, os, getopt
ImportError: No module named os
make: *** [sharedmods] Error 1

Any suggestions on how to remedy this? 

Thanks,

	Gerry Wiener	
	National Center for Atmospheric Research
	P.O. Box 3000
	Boulder, CO
	80307-3000

	Phone: (303)497-8417
	FAX:   (303)497-8401
	Email: gerry at ucar.edu