ipython notebooks do not work on clusters created using spark-1.5.1-bin-hadoop2.6/ec2/spark-ec2 script

I recently downloaded spark-1.5.1-bin-hadoop2.6 to my local mac.

I used spark-1.5.1-bin-hadoop2.6/ec2/spark-ec2 to create an aws cluster. I am able to run the java SparkPi example on the cluster how ever I am not able to run ipython notebooks on the cluster. (I connect using ssh tunnel)

According to the 1.5.1 getting started doc http://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/programming-guide.html#using-the-shell

The following should work

PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=ipython PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON_OPTS="notebook --no-browser --port=7000" /root/spark/bin/pyspark

I am able to connect to the notebook server and start a notebook how ever

bug 1) the default sparkContext does not exist

from pyspark import SparkContext
textFile = sc.textFile("file:///home/ec2-user/dataScience/readme.md")
textFile.take(3

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-127b6a58d5cc> in <module>()
1 from pyspark import SparkContext
----> 2 textFile = sc.textFile("file:///home/ec2-user/dataScience/readme.md")
3 textFile.take(3)

NameError: name 'sc' is not defined

bug 2)
If I create a SparkContext I get the following python versions miss match error

sc = SparkContext("local", "Simple App")
textFile = sc.textFile("file:///home/ec2-user/dataScience/readme.md")
textFile.take(3)

File "/root/spark/python/lib/pyspark.zip/pyspark/worker.py", line 64, in main
("%d.%d" % sys.version_info[:2], version))
Exception: Python in worker has different version 2.7 than that in driver 2.6, PySpark cannot run with different minor versions

I am able to run ipython notebooks on my local Mac as follows. (by default you would get an error that the driver and works are using different version of python)

$ cat ~/bin/pySparkNotebook.sh
#!/bin/sh

set -x # turn debugging on
#set +x # turn debugging off

export PYSPARK_PYTHON=python3
export PYSPARK_DRIVER_PYTHON=python3
IPYTHON_OPTS=notebook $SPARK_ROOT/bin/pyspark $*$

I have spent a lot of time trying to debug the pyspark script however I can not figure out what the problem is

Please let me know if there is something I can do to help

Andy