AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'utf_8_decode'

[mikebryant]

Environment:
Virtualenv, Python 2.7.3, Ubuntu precise

django-setuptest is included in the tests_require parameter.

If django-setuptest is not installed, the setup.py test command breaks:

(.virtualenv)jenkins@xxx:/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx$ python setup.py test                                                                                                                                  
running test
Checking .pth file support in .
/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/bin/python -E -c pass
Searching for django-setuptest
Reading http://pypi.xxx/djangopypi/simple/django-setuptest/
Best match: django-setuptest 0.1.4
Downloading http://pypi.xxx/media/dists/django-setuptest-0.1.4.tar.gz#md5=6a02d4dfa770581024c83f3f29512952
Processing django-setuptest-0.1.4.tar.gz
Running django-setuptest-0.1.4/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/easy_install-457KZc/django-setuptest-0.1.4/egg-dist-tmp-JhF1ca

Installed /tmp/xxx/xxx/django_setuptest-0.1.4-py2.7.egg
running egg_info
writing requirements to xxx.egg-info/requires.txt
writing xxx.egg-info/PKG-INFO
writing top-level names to xxx.egg-info/top_level.txt
writing dependency_links to xxx.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
reading manifest file 'xxx.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
writing manifest file 'xxx.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
running build_ext
Creating test database for alias 'default'...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "setup.py", line 18, in <module>
    tests_require        = ['django-autoconfig', 'django-setuptest'],
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/core.py", line 152, in setup
    dist.run_commands()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 953, in run_commands
    self.run_command(cmd)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/distutils/dist.py", line 972, in run_command
    cmd_obj.run()
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/distribute-0.6.24-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/test.py", line 137, in run
    self.with_project_on_sys_path(self.run_tests)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/distribute-0.6.24-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/test.py", line 117, in with_project_on_sys_path
    func()
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/distribute-0.6.24-py2.7.egg/setuptools/command/test.py", line 146, in run_tests
    testLoader = loader_class()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py", line 94, in __init__
    self.parseArgs(argv)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py", line 149, in parseArgs
    self.createTests()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/main.py", line 158, in createTests
    self.module)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py", line 128, in loadTestsFromNames
    suites = [self.loadTestsFromName(name, module) for name in names]
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/unittest/loader.py", line 113, in loadTestsFromName
    test = obj()
  File "/tmp/xxx/xxx/django_setuptest-0.1.4-py2.7.egg/setuptest/setuptest.py", line 56, in __init__
    self.old_config = self.test_runner.setup_databases()
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/test/simple.py", line 316, in setup_databases
    self.verbosity, autoclobber=not self.interactive)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/backends/creation.py", line 293, in create_test_db
    load_initial_data=False)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 161, in call_command
    return klass.execute(*args, **defaults)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 250, in execute
    translation.activate('en-us')
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 90, in activate
    return _trans.activate(language)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 183, in activate
    _active.value = translation(language)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 172, in translation
    default_translation = _fetch(settings.LANGUAGE_CODE)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 133, in _fetch
    res = _translation(globalpath)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 127, in _translation
    t = gettext_module.translation('django', path, [loc], DjangoTranslation)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 493, in translation
    t = _translations.setdefault(key, class_(fp))
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 75, in __init__
    gettext_module.GNUTranslations.__init__(self, *args, **kw)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 180, in __init__
    self._parse(fp)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/gettext.py", line 337, in _parse
    tmsg = unicode(tmsg, self._charset)
  File "/home/xxx/slave/workspace/xxx/xxx/.virtualenv/lib/python2.7/encodings/utf_8.py", line 16, in decode
    return codecs.utf_8_decode(input, errors, True)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'utf_8_decode'

Running it a second time works.
Or, If django-setuptest is installed manually with pip first, that also works.