> Did you try to investigate?  How hard would it be to fix that?

Here is the output:

328 tests OK.
9 tests failed:
    test_distutils test_file test_file2k test_openpty test_pty
    test_site test_socket test_subprocess test_unittest
52 tests skipped:
    test_aepack test_al test_applesingle test_bsddb test_bsddb185
    test_bsddb3 test_bz2 test_cd test_cl test_codecmaps_cn
    test_codecmaps_hk test_codecmaps_jp test_codecmaps_kr
    test_codecmaps_tw test_crypt test_curses test_dbm test_dl test_gdb
    test_gdbm test_gl test_gzip test_imgfile test_ioctl test_kqueue
    test_linuxaudiodev test_macos test_macostools test_msilib test_nis
    test_ossaudiodev test_pep277 test_readline test_scriptpackages
    test_smtpnet test_socketserver test_sqlite test_ssl test_startfile
    test_sunaudiodev test_tcl test_timeout test_tk test_ttk_guionly
    test_ttk_textonly test_unicode_file test_urllib2net test_urllibnet
    test_winreg test_winsound test_zipfile64 test_zlib
16 skips unexpected on linux2:
    test_bsddb test_bsddb3 test_bz2 test_crypt test_dbm test_gdb
    test_gdbm test_gzip test_ioctl test_readline test_ssl test_tcl
    test_tk test_ttk_guionly test_ttk_textonly test_zlib
make: [test] Error 1 (ignored)

I also tried to run tests with '-v' (i.e., verbose) and got a different
output:

# source environment-variables
# /tmp/nix-build-python-2.7.3.drv-5/Python-2.7.3/python -v /tmp/nix-build-python-2.7.3.drv-5/Python-2.7.3/Lib/test/regrtest.py

331 tests OK.
5 tests failed:
    test_atexit test_distutils test_ioctl test_openpty test_pty
1 test altered the execution environment:
    test_site
52 tests skipped:
    test_aepack test_al test_applesingle test_bsddb test_bsddb185
    test_bsddb3 test_bz2 test_cd test_cl test_codecmaps_cn
    test_codecmaps_hk test_codecmaps_jp test_codecmaps_kr
    test_codecmaps_tw test_crypt test_curses test_dbm test_dl test_gdb
    test_gdbm test_gl test_gzip test_imgfile test_kqueue
    test_linuxaudiodev test_macos test_macostools test_msilib test_nis
    test_ossaudiodev test_pep277 test_py3kwarn test_readline
    test_scriptpackages test_smtpnet test_socketserver test_sqlite
    test_ssl test_startfile test_sunaudiodev test_tcl test_timeout
    test_tk test_ttk_guionly test_ttk_textonly test_unicode_file
    test_urllib2net test_urllibnet test_winreg test_winsound
    test_zipfile64 test_zlib
15 skips unexpected on linux2:
    test_bsddb test_bsddb3 test_bz2 test_crypt test_dbm test_gdb
    test_gdbm test_gzip test_readline test_ssl test_tcl test_tk
    test_ttk_guionly test_ttk_textonly test_zlib

Python is required by GLib, which is a leaf dependency of GNU Parted.
So I would prefer to push Python without tests and spend more time on
Parted.  (GNU packages are preferred, right?)

Nikita