Are you trying pip install pycrpto or otherwise trying to configure an application and you run into the following errors?
checking whether we are cross compiling… configure: error: in `/tmp/pip-install-2eizv0ma/pycrypto’:
configure: error: cannot run C compiled programs.
You may run into an issue that originates from improved security practices, and your only hint is in the first line of the error: “/tmp/pip-install-2eizv0ma/pycrypto”
Run the following: mount | grep tmp
If you see the option noexce in the mount point for your “/tmp” path, then that’s the issue — no execution of any file residing on that partition is allowed.
In my case, I was trying to install a Python package via pip which required some compilation of C code, so I was able get around the issue by set the TMPDIR environment variable:
TMPDIR=/path/to/alternate/tmp pip install pycrypto