Can't decompress data; zlib not available

I already have Python2.7 but due to certain reasons I need to install Python2.4. So, I installed python2.4 and when I run ez_setup.py with Python2.4/python ez_setup.py, I got the error that says

can't decompress data; zlib not available.

I installed zlib1g and zlib1g-dev as well. I restarted my console but I am still getting this error. Can anyone help me with this? I got ez_setup.py from this link.

When I do

which zlib

in the console it says

zlib not found

1 Answer

I don't find a Python 2.4 package for Ubuntu, so I assume you tried to compile it from source. If so, you would have had to explicitly configure and compile it with zlib support.

I found a blog article on how to do this here:

basically install zlib1g-dev, and then configure Python with

./configure --with-zlib=/usr/include

then you can do "make" to generate the Python 2.4 binaries.