The module not found likely means the packages aren't installed.

sudo apt-get install python3-distutils

sudo apt-get install python3-apt

If they're already installed you can try to fix anything that may have been messed up in the upgrade with...

sudo apt-get install --reinstall package-name

I got this problem after upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04. I had a virtual environment depending on Python 3.7, and, to avoid re-installing the whole virtual environment for Python 3.8, I fixed distutils on Python 3.7:

I added the deadsnake PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt-get update

And then installed the distutils package for Python 3.7:

sudo apt install python3.7-distutils

Note: for some reason I had an error installing the latter, that I solved this way:

sudo dpkg -i --force-overwrite /var/cache/apt/archives/python3.7-distutils_3.7.9-1+focal1_all.deb
sudo apt-get -f install 

Debian has decided that distutils is not a core python package, so it is not included in the last versions of debian and debian-based OSes. You should be able to do sudo apt install python3-distutils and it should work.

However, it did not work for me. I use Parrot OS, which is, as Ubuntu, Debian based. I upgraded my system and pip stopped working for python3.7, and I also got the error ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.util'

I tried a lot of stuff to fix it and to reinstall distutils, and I found out by pure luck, that pip3, for python3.8 did work. I then tried python3.7 -m pip3 -V, got /usr/bin/python3.7: No module named pip3 so I decided to have a look in the /usr/lib files.

I looked at /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages and everything looked fine. Then I looked at /usr/lib/python3.7 and saw the folder distutil.

I opened it, and saw the __pycache__, the __init__.py file and a version.py file. I had no idea how many files should be in there, or what the code should be, but I knew that those two files were either wrong or missing another file.

Then I had a look at what was inside /usr/lib/python3.8/distutil and it was totally different. I found the following files:

command                          Folder
__pycache__                      Folder
archive_util.py                  Python script
bcppcompiler.py                  Python script
cmd.py                           Python script
config.py                        Python script
core.py                          Python script
cygwinccompiler.py               Python script
debug.py                         Python script
dep_util.py                      Python script
errors.py                        Python script
extension.py                     Python script
fancy_getopt.py                  Python script
filelist.py                      Python script
file_util.py                     Python script
__init__.py                      Python script
log.py                           Python script
msvc9compiler.py                 Python script
_msvccompiler.py                 Python script
msvccompiler.py                  Python script
README                           Plain text file
spawn.py                         Python script
sysconfig.py                     Python script
text_file.py                     Python script
unixccompiler.py                 Python script
util.py                          Python script
version.py                       Python script
versionpredicate.py              Python script

This was a lot more promising, and since pip3 did work, I assumed that this distutils worked too, and I tried to copy it to the python3.7 folder by running this command:

sudo cp -r /usr/lib/python3.8/distutils /usr/lib/python3.7/distutils

Alternatively:

sudo mv /usr/lib/python3.7/distutils/ /usr/lib/python3.7/distutils_back
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/python3.8/distutils /usr/lib/python3.7/

Then I tried again python3.7 -m pip -V and got

pip 20.0.2 from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pip (python 3.7)

Then I tried installing some modules and everything works fine. I hope this is helpful.

I came here for an answer and didn't find, but I fixed it myself.

Some time ago I played with python version by using update-alternatives, also I believe I manually edited some scripts and now, after updating from 16.04 to 20.04, I had the same problem as you. I am not sure if my fix is "proper", yet it works for me:

~$ which pip3
/home/patryk/.local/bin/pip3
~$ vim /home/patryk/.local/bin/pip3

I changed the first line from:

#!/usr/bin/python3.7

to:

#!/usr/bin/python3

Helped in my case.

Ensure install appropriate version based on python version, e.g. to get all available versions (assume using apt package manager):

$ apt-cache search distutils
python-setuptools - Python Distutils Enhancements
python-setuptools-doc - Python Distutils Enhancements (documentation)
python3-d2to1 - Python3 support for distutils2-like setup.cfg files as package metadata
python3-setuptools - Python3 Distutils Enhancements
pypy-setuptools - PyPy Distutils Enhancements
python-d2to1 - Python support for distutils2-like setup.cfg files as package metadata
python-distlib - low-level components of python distutils2/packaging
python-distutils-extra - enhancements to the Python build system
python-stsci.distutils - Python packaging utilities for STScI's packages
python3-distlib - low-level components of python distutils2/packaging
python3-distutils-extra - enhancements to the Python3 build system
python3-stdeb - Python to Debian source package conversion plugins for distutils
python3-stsci.distutils - Python3 packaging utilities for STScI's packages
python3.7-distutils - distutils package for Python (version 3.7)
python3.8-distutils - distutils package for Python (version 3.8)
python3.9-distutils - distutils package for Python (version 3.9)

You can see python3.7-distutils, python3.8-distutils, and python3.9-distutils listed in above output, then can install it by specify the version tied to your desired python version, e.g. I have python3.8 and I want to do:

$ sudo apt-get install python3.8-distutils

Then I would run pip with that python version (Ensure you run echo $PYTHONPATH first to confirm python3.8(my python version) in the path otherwise pip will install it in wrong path), e.g.:

$ python3.8 -m pip install requests

After install Python3.10 in Ubuntu using ppa:deadsnakes/ppa, I've solved this error executing sudo apt install python3.10-distutils.

Make sure to replace 3.10 which is version of python with appropriate version.

Installing Python3.10

Update system
    $ sudo apt-get update -y && sudo apt-get full-upgrade -y

Helps to add ppa repositories
    $ sudo apt install software-properties-common -y

Adding deadsnake repository
    $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

Installing python
    $ sudo apt-get install python3.10

Installing distutils.util

$ sudo apt-get install python3.10-distutils

Still using python3.10 -m pip some_command might result in error to fix it use

$ curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | python3.10

I installed alternate versions of python from the deadsnakes PPA. I had to install the versioned distutils for all alternate versions of the form python3.x-distutils. So for python 3.9, I did sudo apt install python3.9-distutils.

Get the same after upgrade from 20.04 to 22.04

22.04 comes with python3.10.
And after upgrade python3.9 still exist beside 3.10 version, but has not distutils, so pip doesn't works with python3.9 (which is bad because you can't uninstall anything installed with python3.9 earlier).

So use: python3.10 -m pip install it works.

And you can make pip use of python3.10 by default like this:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3.10 4

Don't know if this will help but for me I was trying to install a package using:

$ pip3 install <package>

And that gave the same error, however when I used sudo:

$ sudo pip3 install <package>

it succeeded. I can only imagine that dist-utils are installed for the root user only.