Fix ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: No module named MySQLdb

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: this is MySQLdb version (1, 2, 3, 'final', 0), but _mysql is version (1, 2, 5, 'final', 1)

instead of

$ pip install MySQL-python

install the matching version.

$ pip install MySQL-python==1.2.3

then

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Error loading MySQLdb module: _mysql: init failed

unfortunately, this one fixed itself somehow. i just opened up a new command line window in Ubuntu without going into the virtualenv and it worked.