Debian – Running pip install in virtual environment tries to install packages in default python directory

I am trying to install modules for python on my raspberry pi 5 in a virtual environment but it just says that the environment is externally managed.

I started with activating the virtual environment and trying to install the package I needed but it just told me the environment was externally managed.

clock@system-time:/clock $ source .venv/bin/activate
(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ sudo python3 -m pip install inputimeout
error: externally-managed-environment

× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
    python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
    install.

    If you wish to install a non-Debian-packaged Python package,
    create a virtual environment using python3 -m venv path/to/venv.
    Then use path/to/venv/bin/python and path/to/venv/bin/pip. Make
    sure you have python3-full installed.

    For more information visit http://rptl.io/venv

note: If you believe this is a mistake, please contact your Python installation or OS distribution provider. You can override this, at the risk of breaking your Python installation or OS, by passing --break-system-packages.
hint: See PEP 668 for the detailed specification.

I checked which pip and python it was using and it was the one from the virtual environment.

(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ which pip
/clock/.venv/bin/pip
(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ which python
/clock/.venv/bin/python

So I tried using --break-system-packages because I though maybe there was just a something wrong. It downloaded and installed the package.

(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ sudo python3 -m pip install inputimeout --break-system-packages
Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, https://www.piwheels.org/simple
Collecting inputimeout
  Downloading inputimeout-1.0.4-py3-none-any.whl (4.6 kB)
Installing collected packages: inputimeout
Successfully installed inputimeout-1.0.4
WARNING: Running pip as the 'root' user can result in broken permissions and conflicting behaviour with the system package manager. It is recommended to use a virtual environment instead: https://pip.pypa.io/warnings/venv

I then tried checking my list of installed packages and it was not there.

(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ pip list
Package    Version
---------- -------
pip        23.0.1
setuptools 66.1.1

So I exited and checked the list for the default installation of python and it was there.

(.venv) clock@system-time:/clock $ deactivate
clock@system-time:/clock $ pip list
Package                            Version
---------------------------------- ----------
arandr                             0.1.11
asgiref                            3.6.0
astroid                            2.14.2
asttokens                          2.2.1
av                                 10.0.0
Babel                              2.10.3
beautifulsoup4                     4.11.2
blinker                            1.5
certifi                            2022.9.24
chardet                            5.1.0
charset-normalizer                 3.0.1
click                              8.1.3
colorama                           0.4.6
colorzero                          2.0
cryptography                       38.0.4
cupshelpers                        1.0
dbus-python                        1.3.2
dill                               0.3.6
distro                             1.8.0
docutils                           0.19
executing                          2.0.1
Flask                              2.2.2
gpiozero                           2.0
html5lib                           1.1
icecream                           2.1.3
idna                               3.3
importlib-metadata                 4.12.0
inputimeout                        1.0.4
...

I also tried following this but it just didn’t work either.