gcc: error trying to exec cc1plus: execvp: no such file or directory

This problem can happen if different versions of g++ and gcc are installed.

g++ --version
gcc --version

If these don't give the result, you probably have multiple versions of gcc installed. You can check by using:

dpkg -l | grep gcc | awk '{print $2}'

Usually, /usr/bin/gcc will be sym-linked to /etc/alternatives/gcc which is again sym-linked to say /usr/bin/gcc-4.6 or /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 (In case you have gcc-4.6, gcc-4.8 installed.)

By changing this link you can make gcc and g++ run in the same version and this may resolve your issue!

 

It worked, and the error goes away after I modify the softlink of /etc/alternatives/gcc from /usr/bin/gcc72 to /usr/bin/gcc48 with ln -fs /usr/bin/gcc48 /etc/alternatives/gcc. 

ref: https://stackoverflow.com/a/23037280/8025086