Thank you for the support and the detailed explanation on why the native python is necessary.

I'm now able to successfully compile all the extension modules on an Ubuntu Machine where there isn't any Python packages installed.

I'll go ahead and compile the python on the default Ubuntu 16.04 which has both python3 and python2.7. I'll update this thread with my results.

The below steps has been followed:


-----------------------------------------------------------
Building Python 3.5.2 natively for x86_64 HOST
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./configure --enable-shared --disable-ipv6 --prefix=/opt/python3

make

sudo make install 


export PATH=/opt/python3/bin:$PATH

#this is a work around for the missing library error, needs to find a better solution
sudo ln -sf /opt/python3/lib/libpython3.5m.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libpython3.5m.so.1.0
sudo ldconfig

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#Cros-compiling for ARM
-----------------------------------------------------------
make distclean

CONFIG_SITE=config.site CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc CXX=arm-linux-gnueabihf-g++ AR=arm-linux-gnueabihf-ar RANLIB=arm-linux-gnueabihf-ranlib READELF=arm-linux-gnueabihf-readelf CFLAGS="-I${CROSS_PATH}/usr/include" LDFLAGS="-L${CROSS_PATH}/usr/lib" CPPFLAGS="-I${CROSS_PATH}/usr/include" ./configure --enable-shared --host=arm-linux --build=x86_64-linux-gnu --disable-ipv6 --prefix=/opt/arm-linux-gnueabihf-python

make

sudo PATH=/opt/python3/bin:$PATH make install


It would be quite helpful if the extension modules are not removed silently. Unfortunately I do not have the know-how how to do this but would like to test it once someone makes available.

Once again thanks a lot for the support all through out the day. I'll revert back with the results of my testing in a while.