[Python] TensorFlow import workaround not working with tensorflow-gpu if CUDA is not installed

[asfimport]

TensorFlow version: 1.7 (GPU enabled but CUDA is not installed)

tensorflow-gpu was installed via pip install

import ray
 File "/home/eric/Desktop/ray-private/python/ray/__init__.py", line 28, in <module>
 import pyarrow # noqa: F401
 File "/home/eric/Desktop/ray-private/python/ray/pyarrow_files/pyarrow/__init__.py", line 55, in <module>
 compat.import_tensorflow_extension()
 File "/home/eric/Desktop/ray-private/python/ray/pyarrow_files/pyarrow/compat.py", line 193, in import_tensorflow_extension
 ctypes.CDLL(ext)
 File "/usr/lib/python3.5/ctypes/__init__.py", line 347, in __init__
 self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: libcublas.so.9.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Reporter: Philipp Moritz / @pcmoritz
Assignee: Philipp Moritz / @pcmoritz

PRs and other links:

• GitHub Pull Request #2224

_{Note: This issue was originally created as ARROW-2805. Please see the migration documentation for further details.}

[asfimport]

Wes McKinney / @wesm:
In this case, you want it to fail silently?

[asfimport]

Philipp Moritz / @pcmoritz:
The problem here was that there was a broken version of TensorFlow installed, and our custom way to find TensorFlow with site picked that up. I'm replacing it with the "official" way to find TensorFlow as of https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.html#approximating-importlib-import-module.

That should make the workaround work iff "import tensorflow" works (on systems that support importlib etc.". On Python 2 we will fall back to "import tensorflow".

[asfimport]

Robert Nishihara / @robertnishihara:
Issue resolved by pull request 2224
#2224