Hi @WilliamLH ,
Welcome to this Community!
You can solve that error by installing setuptools python package.
Install it using the following command lines:
cd ~
sudo apt update
python3 -m pip install setuptools==56.2.0
Once installed, you can compile your ROS2 packages the normal way:
cd ~/ros2_ws
rm -rf ./build ./install ./log
colcon build
...
Let me know if this solved your issue.
Regards,
Girish