Failed to install OpenStack Dashboard

I'm trying to install a cloud following the OpenStack's official document. When I try to install dashboard on the cloud controller: http://docs.openstack.org/diablo/openstack-compute/install/content/configure-dashboard.html I had error when trying to sync database:

$ /usr/share/openstack-dashboard/dashboard/manage.py syncdb

ERROR:root:No module named local.local_settings
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/dashboard/settings.py", line 117, in 
    from local.local_settings import *

ImportError: No module named local.local_settings
ERROR:root:No module named local.local_settings
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/dashboard/../dashboard/settings.py", line 117, in 
    from local.local_settings import *
ImportError: No module named local.local_settings
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./dashboard/manage.py", line 31, in 
    execute_manager(settings)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 438, in execute_manager

    utility.execute()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 379, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/base.py", line 191, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **options.__dict__)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/base.py", line 220, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/base.py", line 351, in handle
    return self.handle_noargs(**options)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/core/management/commands/syncdb.py", line 56, in handle_noargs

    cursor = connection.cursor()
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/django/db/backends/dummy/base.py", line 15, in complain
    raise ImproperlyConfigured("You haven't set the database ENGINE setting yet.")
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: You haven't set the database ENGINE setting yet.

My /usr/share/openstack-dashboard/local/local_settings.py is the same in the guide. I installed python-mysqldb, but I doesn't change.

Then I try to install Dashboard from git like in wiki: http://wiki.openstack.org/OpenStackDashboard
But I had the same error.

I use VirtualBox to install 2 servers, each one runs Ubuntu server 11.10 amd64. Everything fine, except for Dashboard!

How can I fix it?
Thank you!

It looks like python can't find local.local_settings.py, an this looks normal to me.

You are in:

/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/dashboard/

And your local_settings.py is in:

/usr/share/openstack-dashboard/local/local_settings.py

import local.local_settings.py is going to look for it in /usr/share/openstack-dashboard/dashboard/local/local_settings.py

In the git there is a small wrapper in openstack-dashboard that could help with this problem. Just create a new file in openstack-dashboard, call it manage.py, copy this code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os, sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "dashboard.settings")

    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line


    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

And now execute it.

What that code do is changing a global so that the default settings.py for django is now dashboard/settings.py (instead of ./settings.py), and call the default django manage.py.

This should solve the import error as now local/local_settings.py exists. Of course it could create another import problems, but it's worth trying.