On new Ubuntu servers, Python 3.10 is installed by default. But if you want to install a specific version of Python, this post shows you how.

Run the following commands with sudo or root user.

Install the prerequisites

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install software-properties-common

Update the sources

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa

When prompted press Enter to continue:

Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.

Install Python 3.8

sudo apt-get -y install python3.8  # or any other version

Verify the installation

python3.8 --version

Cheers! At this point, Python 3.8 is installed on your Ubuntu system, and you can start using it.

Notes:

• Installing python3.8 via deadsnakes has an issue with distutils module.

• While running pip install you might get an error like this:

  from distutils.cmd import Command as DistutilsCommand
  ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distutils.cmd'
  

• To fix this, you can install python3.8-distutils package:

  sudo apt-get -y install python3.8-distutils