During Installation: Secret Key not recognized

[funktionierbar]

Steps to reproduce:

Followed the Installation instructions on Ubuntu 18.04. with following differences:

first I installed all dependecies

sudo mkdir /var/www/pootle
cd /var/www/pootle
virtualenv env
source env/bin/activate
sudo pip install --pre Pootle
sudo pootle init --db mysql --db-name pootle --db-user pootle --config /var/www/pootle/env/pootle.conf
sudo nano'ed the above conf file and input the mysql-user-password, checked the secret-key, is present and has correct length
sudo pootle rqworker &

all working well, with exception to the note that python2.7 is deprecated.

Results (Expected/Actual):

expected: rqworker starting
actual:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/pootle", line 11, in
load_entry_point('Pootle==2.8.2', 'console_scripts', 'pootle')()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pootle/runner.py", line 357, in main
run_app(project='pootle', django_settings_module='pootle.settings')
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pootle/runner.py", line 312, in run_app
caches = settings.CACHES.keys()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 53, in getattr
self._setup(name)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 41, in _setup
self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 116, in init
raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.")
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

Environment (i.e. 'pootle --version', DB, OS, Browser):

pootle --version
Pootle 2.8.2 (Django 1.10.8, Translate Toolkit 2.2.5)

When I try "pootle migrate" the same error is shown.