Django not running: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings' - django

Question

I have installed django website in a new Ubuntu 17.10 server. It is based on python3. It works fine when i run the website in development mode using
python manage.py runserver
But when i tried to configure it via apache2 webserver in port 80 by adding wsgi in apache by editing default config file as shown..
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
<Directory /home/usr/mygpsproject/gps_restapi/gps_restapi>
<Files wsgi.py>
Require all granted
</Files>
</Directory>
WSGIDaemonProcess gps_restapi python-path=/home/usr/mygpsproject/gps_restapi/ python-home=/home/usr/mygpsproject/venv/bin/
WSGIProcessGroup gps_restapi
WSGIScriptAlias / /home/usr/mygpsproject/gps_restapi/gps_restapi/wsgi.py
</VirtualHost>
but Site is not working. When I checked the apache error log to find this error...
[Sat Apr 14 16:16:09.201739 2018] [core:notice] [pid 5089:tid 140258267696064] AH00051: child pid 7500 exit signal Aborted (6), possible coredump in /etc/apache2
Fatal Python error: Py_Initialize: Unable to get the locale encoding
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'
Current thread 0x00007f906c390bc0 (most recent call first):
I am not able to find what is this encodings module. it worked fine in development mode. so python is not missing any libraries for sure.
What could be the problem with my configuration.

Answer 1

Instead of:
python-home=/home/usr/mygpsproject/venv/bin/
you should be using:
python-home=/home/usr/mygpsproject/venv
Review the documentation on using virtual environments. You are supposed to point to the root of the virtual environment as given by sys.prefix, not the bin directory.
http://modwsgi.readthedocs.io/en/develop/user-guides/virtual-environments.html
Also ensure that the virtual environment is created from the same Python version that mod_wsgi was compiled for.
Finally, depending on the Linux distribution used, you also shouldn't place your code under your personal home directory as the permissions on the home directory can be such that the user that runs your code as under Apache can't access the home directory.