The script block executes on its own. So the virtualenv will not be available to gunicorn when started like that. Check gunicorn's docs on using it with a virtualenv:

To serve an app from a Virtualenv it is generally easiest to just install Gunicorn directly into the Virtualenv. This will create a set of Gunicorn scripts for that Virtualenv which can be used to run applications normally.

So install it directly in the virtualenv:

source ~/venvs/myapp/bin/activate
pip install -I gunicorn

Then in your Upstart script, you'd need to use gunicorn from the virtualenv. It would be something like:

description "Gunicorn daemon for Django project"

start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE=eth0)
stop on runlevel [!12345]

# If the process quits unexpectadly trigger a respawn
respawn

setuid django
setgid django
chdir /home/django

exec venvs/myapp/bin/gunicorn \
    --name=django_project \
    --pythonpath=django_project \
    --bind=0.0.0.0:9000 \
    --config /etc/gunicorn.d/gunicorn.py \
    django_project.wsgi:application

Thank you for your attention Andrew.

I think I've got it fixed, but there's one gotcha:

For some reason latest gunicorn that worked for me was 17.5 (the one that came preinstaled with image).

I've got app to work, but there are still quirks, which I will solve myself now (fingers crossed)

I am having a similar issue I have a django project(forte) running from a virtualenv(prod)

If I

root@Fortelinea:/# cd /home/django/forte/
root@Fortelinea:/home/django/forte# /home/django/prod/bin/gunicorn forte.wsgi -b 127.0.0.1:9000
[2015-02-04 18:47:02 -0500] [1339] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 19.2.0
[2015-02-04 18:47:02 -0500] [1339] [INFO] Listening at: http://127.0.0.1:9000 (1339)
[2015-02-04 18:47:02 -0500] [1339] [INFO] Using worker: sync
[2015-02-04 18:47:02 -0500] [1342] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 1342

then everything is groovy and works

now I am trying to use upstart to lauch my virtualenv gunicorn at boot

my ustart script looks like (/etc/init/forte.conf)

start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE=eth0)
stop on runlevel [!12345]

# If the process quits unexpectadly trigger a respawn
respawn

setuid django
setgid django
chdir /home/django/forte

exec /home/django/prod/bin/gunicorn forte.wsgi -b 127.0.0.1:9000

when this runs it the process fails and spawns a bunch of time and then quits

```root@Fortelinea:/# initctl reload-configuration
root@Fortelinea:/# start forte
forte start/running, process 1359
root@Fortelinea:/# tail /var/log/syslog
Feb 4 18:52:37 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.050336] init: forte main process (1389) terminated with status 3
Feb 4 18:52:37 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.050350] init: forte main process ended, respawning
Feb 4 18:52:38 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.431913] init: forte main process (1394) terminated with status 3
Feb 4 18:52:38 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.431927] init: forte main process ended, respawning
Feb 4 18:52:38 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.815041] init: forte main process (1399) terminated with status 3
Feb 4 18:52:38 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1760.815057] init: forte main process ended, respawning
Feb 4 18:52:39 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1761.194726] init: forte main process (1404) terminated with status 3
Feb 4 18:52:39 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1761.194741] init: forte main process ended, respawning
Feb 4 18:52:39 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1761.577727] init: forte main process (1409) terminated with status 3
Feb 4 18:52:39 Fortelinea kernel: [ 1761.577744] init: forte respawning too fast, stopped

any thoughts or insights would be appreciated