Me and a few other did some more testing with the latest debian/ubuntu packages. The debian package works just fine in wheezy/sid.
The ubuntu package does not work in Oneric nor does it work in Natty (to be expected). $ web2py Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/web2py", line 87, in <module> if not os.path.exists(module_web2py_applications):open(module_web2py_applications, 'w').close() IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/jelkner/web2py/applications/__init__.py'