Description of problem:
Whenever a python plugin is used, there is the following error in syslog:

Unhandled python exception in importing module: ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.6/lib-dynload/_socketmodule.so: undefined symbol: PyExc_ValueError

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
collectd-4.10.3-1.el6.i686

How reproducible:
Try to use any python plugin for collectd.

Workaround:
In the following page on Github there are documented two alternative methods to temporarily resolve the issue:

  https://github.com/dcarley/collectd-carbon/commit/be2c35d44664af882b54318dab557d028ca73136

I tried the first one on a 32bit system (CentOS 6.2) and I confirm that python plugins load successfully after launching collectd with ``LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libpython2.6.so``. I have edited the collectd initscript as shown below:

start () {
    echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
    if [ -r "$CONFIG" ]
    then
        LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libpython2.6.so daemon /usr/sbin/collectd -C "$CONFIG"
        RETVAL=$?
        echo
        [ $RETVAL -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/$prog
    fi
}

The second alternative workaround involves recompiling collectd, which I was too lazy to test.

Please update to a newer version or fix the issue by implementing either workaround.

Thanks