If installing Django on Ubuntu 14.04 and you run into an error like “IOError: decoder zip not available” solve it as follows:
Install libzip and create a symbolic link in /usr/lib using the commands:
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev sudo ln -s /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so /usr/lib/libz.so
Next, reinstall PIL using the commands while in bosg virtual environment:
pip uninstall PIL pip install --no-cache-dir PIL --allow-external \ PIL --allow-unverified PIL
Finally, refresh project if on producion environment.