Problems with importing; must do it twice?

[Peter Hansen]

Stew LG wrote:
> 
> 
> My web host just switched hardware, and in
> the process I've been moved to Solaris and
> Python 2.1.1.
> 
> My old scripts are breaking now, at the
> very first line:
> 
> import cgi;
> 
> I think their Python install is broken,
> but I wanted to be very sure before
> I complained about it, since I've been
> acting somewhat hysterically towards the
> company's support lately - the move broke
> a few things for me.

Presumably the hosting company is escape.com?  I just
went through trouble-shooting the same problem for a
friend (on my vacation in Manhattan! :-) and although
this is out of my area of expertise, I concluded that
they had either compiled Python with the wrong switch
(asking for ssl support when they didn't have it
installed) or that they were caught by an apparent
glitch in the build process wherein it finds the header
files for OpenSSL and builds support, even though the
library itself (libssl.so, as you found) is not 
present.

Two options I guess: get them to rebuild Python
without SSL support, or get them to install the 
properly SSL libraries.

(I'd appreciate hearing when/if you get this fixed,
in case you manage to do it before my friend succeeds.)

-Peter