Your Scenario Recap #

You tried running this command to create a virtual environment:

python -m venv my_venv_name

But hit this error:

Error: Command '['\\ (redacted path) \python.exe', '-Im', 'ensurepip', '--upgrade', '--default-pip']' returned non-zero exit status 2.

Context: You're in an offline enterprise environment, have a fresh local-only install of Python 3.6.5 (with pip 9.0.3, and python -m pip works fine), but both your Python install directory and the target venv directory are on a network drive.

Root Cause #

The core issue here is that Python's venv module (especially in older versions like 3.6.x) has poor compatibility with UNC paths (the raw format of network drive paths). This incompatibility breaks the ensurepip step that venv runs under the hood, leading to the non-zero exit status error.

The Fix #

Here's the straightforward solution that works:

• Stop using UNC paths for the network drive. Instead, map the network share to a local drive letter (like Z: or X:), then run the venv command using this mapped drive path.

For example: If your Python is installed at \\corp-server\python36, map \\corp-server to Z: first. Then you can run Z:\python36\python.exe -m venv Z:\my_venv_name (or navigate to the mapped drive's directory first and run the command from there) — this will create the virtual environment successfully.

Should You Report This as a Bug? #

Since Python 3.6.x is no longer officially maintained (its support ended years ago), reporting a bug for this version won't lead to a fix. However, if you encounter the same issue in a currently supported Python release, it would be valid to submit a bug report to the Python core team. Also, you're right that this error message is very unclear — it's definitely confusing for beginners following basic tutorials, which is a legitimate UX shortcoming.

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Michael Grazebrook