To install Python 3.8 on Ubuntu version 23

Open your terminal and run these commands:

Install build dependencies

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
                        libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm \
                        libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev \
                        libffi-dev liblzma-dev python3-openssl git

Download and extract Python 3.8 source code

mkdir ~/python38
cd ~/python38
wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.8.16/Python-3.8.16.tgz
tar -xf Python-3.8.16.tgz

cd Python-3.8.16

Configure the build

./configure --enable-optimizations

Compile the source code

make -j$(nproc)

Install Python

sudo make install

Verify the installation

python3.8 --version

To create a virtual environment specify the Python version.

Example: python3.8 -m venv venv

I have faced the same problems and could make it work by adding some additional flags when running ./configure

Here are my steps:

Step 1 – Prerequsities

sudo apt-get install -y make build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev \
libbz2-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev wget curl llvm libncurses5-dev \
libncursesw5-dev xz-utils tk-dev libffi-dev liblzma-dev \
libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libedit-dev libc6-dev

Step 2 – Download Python 3.6

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.6.15/Python-3.6.15.tgz

tar -xzf Python-3.6.15.tgz

Step 3 – Compile Python Source

cd Python-3.6.15
./configure --enable-optimizations  -with-lto  --with-pydebug
make -j 8  # adjust for number of your CPU cores
sudo make altinstall

Step 4 – Check the Python Version

python3.6 -V

Python is installed to all of our computers because it is useful framework for a variety of things .

To use the python interface from terminal just type python .

to check you python version just type python --version

to run a python script you need to type in the form :

./python_script_name.py

but very importantly it has to be executable first

chmod +x python_script_name.py

I hope it helps !