• I have read the Filing Issues and subsequent “How to Get Help” sections of the documentation.
• I can reproduce this problem with stock/default settings file, theme, and sample content (as described in above “How to Get Help” sections of the documentation).
• I have searched the issues (including closed ones) and believe that this is not a duplicate.

• OS version and name: Linux Mint 22.1 ( related to Ubuntu )
• Python version: Python 3.12.3
• Pelican version: N/A
• Link to theme: None
• Links to plugins: None
• Link to your site: None
• Link to your source: https://getpelican.com/#quickstart
• Link to a Gist with the contents of your settings file: None

Issue

Hi,

following the quick start tutorial the very first step fails:

`
$ python3 -m pip install "pelican[markdown]"
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
install.

If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
sure you have python3-full installed.

If you wish to install a non-Debian packaged Python application,
it may be easiest to use pipx install xyz, which will manage a
virtual environment for you. Make sure you have pipx installed.

See /usr/share/doc/python3.12/README.venv for more information.

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.
`
I know this is more a Python and distro problem and I have successfully worked around this some time ago.

This is a non-trivial problem. And it will throw you and new users off at such an early point that they will not even bother trying fixing it. I suggest a portable installation, but that is a different issue.