title: Numpy - ImportError: cannot import name _distributor_init
body: <p>I have been using <code>matplotlib</code> from <code>python</code> and the <code>spyder ide</code> to create some figures for a publication. It always worked but even after years of using linux the whole thing for me still is a black box.</p>
  
  <p>Yesterday I tried to run another application and it was complaining that <code>numpy</code> and <code>cv2</code> were not installed (I don't know why as they were installed). I think I tried to upgrade those two packages by calling <code>sudo pip install [package_name] --upgrade</code>. End of the story - nothing works.
  At the moment my goal is just to get spyder running so that I can create figures again.</p>
  
  <p>When I want to <code>import scipy.io (</code>import scipy.io as sio`) I just get a bunch of errors.</p>
  
  <pre><code>runfile('/home/test/Desktop/python_test.py', wdir='/home/test/Desktop') 
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  
  File "&lt;ipython-input-1-83166c6df179&gt;", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
  runfile('/home/test/Desktop/python_test.py', wdir='/home/test/Desktop')
  
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/spyder/utils/site/sitecustomize.py", line 705, in runfile
  execfile(filename, namespace)
  
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/spyder/utils/site/sitecustomize.py", line 94, in execfile
  builtins.execfile(filename, *where)
  
  File "/home/test/Desktop/python_test.py", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
  import scipy as sio # to import matlab files
  
  File "/home/test/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/scipy/__init__.py", line 62, in &lt;module&gt;
  from numpy import show_config as show_numpy_config
  
  File "/home/test/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/__init__.py", line 140, in &lt;module&gt;
  from . import _distributor_init
  
  ImportError: cannot import name _distributor_init
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What do I need to do to fix this?</p>
  
  <p>Currently, I have the following setup:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
  Spyder 3.2.6
  
  test@test:~$ python --version
  Python 2.7.15rc1
  
  test@test:~$ pip --version
  pip 9.0.1 from /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages (python 2.7)
  
  test@test:~$ pip install scipy
  Collecting scipy ... Successfully installed numpy-1.16.2 scipy-1.2.1
  
  test@test:~$ sudo apt-get install python-numpy python-scipy
  python-numpy is already the newest version (1:1.13.3-2ubuntu1).
  python-scipy is already the newest version (0.19.1-2ubuntu1).
  </code></pre>