Building mod_wsgi
Debian Etch
mod_wsgi for Apache2 isn't shipped with Debian Etch, however it's included in backport.org (read http://wiki.debian.org/Backports for instructions on how to enable it).
Debian Lenny
The package libapache2-mod-wsgi should be part of Debian Lenny.
Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid
Ubuntu 8.10 has mod-wsgi 2.3 - and that might be broken in the same way as it originally was in Debian Lenny, see: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mod-wsgi/+bug/493736
I compiled mod-wsgi 2.5 and 2.8 on a Intrepid system - use them on your own risk:
libapache2-mod-wsgi_2.5-0local1_i386.deb md5sum: 9bf8d561c3e76b6b0ad47f383836fbc3
libapache2-mod-wsgi_2.8-0local1_i386.deb md5sum: e58190dc1d1520bfb04e42bdefc50637