Certain users can't start python

[Michael Ross]

Hello,

I am ... stuck.

I've been trying to setup mercurials web frontend with apache,
but apache won't start python.
Not as cgi-script, not with mod_python.

Investigating, I found this not only to be a problem with apache.

Situation now:
Users "michael" and "root" can run python.
All others can't:
	
	Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
	Could not find platform dependent libraries <exec_prefix>
	Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
	ImportError: No module named site


For troubleshooting, I cloned "michael" to an new user "dummy",
i. e. I created the user, copied all .dotfiles from "michael" over,
adjusted permissions.
"dummy" can't start python either.

Changing accounts with su does not help:
	dummy$ su -l michael
	dummy$ su -m michael
*both* can run python,

	michael$ su -l dummy
	michael$ su -m dummy
*both* can not run python.

Setting PYTHONHOME does not help -- the libraries are found (probably,
the error messages disappear), the ImportError remains.

It's been a couple of long days and maybe I'm missing something obvious?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

8.2 stable, python 2.7.2.
As for python, I tried reinstalling. No change.

TIA

Michael