Ubuntu 20.04 upgrade, Python missing libffi.so.6
May 18
I recently upgraded my OS to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
Now when I try to import a library like Numpy in Python, I get the following error:
ImportError: libffi.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
I tried installing the libffi package, but apt can't locate it:
sudo apt-get install libffi
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package libffi
python
ubuntu1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
May 18
It seems like I fixed it. I could be wrong, but here is what I think happened:
- Ubuntu 20.04 upgraded libffi6 to libffi7
- Python is still looking for libffi6
What I did to fix it :
Locate libffi.so.7 in your system
$ find /usr/lib -name "libffi.so*"
Create a simlink named libffi.so.6 that points to libffi.so.7:
sudo ln -s /usr/path/to/libffi.so.7 /usr/lib/path/to/libffi.so.6
UPDATE:
As noted by many users, this fix could have unintended consequences. The better way to do it is to reinstall python as @amichaud explained. This should be used as a last resort IF you're not using pyenv/virtualenv/etc in which case removing python will cause a lot of dependencies to be removed as well.
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May 18
python3-numpy