Cannot install nxviz on anaconda

[PyMap]

Hi Eric. I´m having the same issue as @hansenzoe! . I´m trying to install nxviz with python 3.6 on jupyter notebook (Windows 10). This is a virtual environment (the root is python 2.7). Using "!pip install nxviz" on jupyter I get the following error:

ERROR: Cannot uninstall 'PyYAML'. It is a distutils installed project and thus we cannot accurately determine which files belong to it which would lead to only a partial uninstall.

When I try with "! conda install nxviz" or "! conda install -c conda-forge nxviz" (from notebook or the anaconda prompt of the virtual environment) the instalation process never ends.

Do you any idea?

Thanks!

Originally posted by @PyMap in #361 (comment)

[ericmjl]

hi @PyMap, I'm not sure how to debug the pip installation, as I think there's some context I'm missing (and I usually don't use pip anyways). If you're working out of a virtual environment, then I'm not sure why you'd have an uninstallation of pyyaml, though?

As for installation through conda - It's definitely not recommended practice to conda install a package in a notebook. Now, if the conda installation process never ends in the anaconda prompt, that's probably because the solver is taking a while.

Perhaps destroying your current virtual env and recreating it could help?

I'm sorry I can't offer more help here. I'm quite unfamiliar with Windows (the only OS where the Anaconda prompt is relevant), as I've been a macOS + Linux user exclusively since 2006.

[PyMap]

Eric, thanks for your answer! The problem should be associated with the environment. I solved it but don't really know how. I've installed nxviz using "conda install nxviz" on root anaconda prompt and then imported it first on jupyter root (python 2.7). After that, I also imported it on python 3.6 virtual environment and it works. Don't really know what happened (I didn't do anything different than before).

[PyMap]

I was wrong. It doesn't work. I can import it on root environment but not in the virtual one.

[ericmjl]

@PyMap one thing you'll have to do is ensure that Jupyter can recognize your environment's Python interpreter. The commands are listed below; don't copy the $!

$ conda activate <your_env_name>  # or source activate <your_env_name>
$ python -m ipykernel install --user --name <your_env_name>

Now, in Jupyter, you will see your environment kernel. Ensure that your environment is activated and then conda install nxviz. Then you can import.

I'm a bit tied for time right now, as I have other contexts to handle, so I'm going to leave it here for a bit. Do ping back if other issues show up.

I would also encourage you to post an issue on the Jupyter repository with this installation bonanza 😄. After Jupyter moved to not automatically identifying conda environment Python kernels, I've had to debug more environment issues than nxviz issues, and they all follow the same theme: "I installed nxviz, but it doesn't import! Turns out Jupyter needs to know which Python kernel I'm using, and that means I need to install the kernel first, and then ensure that I'm in the right environment before I install nxviz..." I'm just as frustrated as you are having to debug this, except it's repetitive debugging over and over on my side.

[ericmjl]

For sanity, I'm going to close this issue. Feel free to post back if things still don't work.

[PyMap]

Eric, thanks for your help. I think I won't continue for the moment. I tried with

python -m ipykernel install --user --name <your_env_name>

it doesn't launch my jupyter but doesn't give back any error.

When use conda install, the "never ends" installation process start and stop here:

If I have any news I ping you. Thanks again!

[ericmjl]

it doesn't launch my jupyter but doesn't give back any error.

Sorry, with this command:

$ python -m ipykernel install --user --name <your_env_name>

you have to replace <your_env_name> with the name of your environment.

That command only installs the kernel as a kernel that Jupyter can recognize.

The pre-requisite to the above command is:

$ conda activate <your_env_name>

Taken together:

$ conda activate <your_env_name>  # replace with your environment name.
$ python -m ipykernel install --user --name <your_env_name>
$ conda install -c conda-forge nxviz
$ jupyter lab  # (or jupyter notebook)

That's the correct order of commands to run.

[PyMap]

Thanks again Eric! That's exactly what I did but when I use "conda install" or "conda-forge" the installation process seems to get stucked on the following line:

conda-forge/win-64::wordcloud==1.4.1=py36_0

I have created another virtual environment with python 3.6 and this seems to work, but still looks rare.

I will keep trying.

Thanks again for your help!

[ericmjl]

OK, got it. This looks like a conda issue, and I would encourage you to post this "stuck installation" issue on the conda repo: https://github.com/conda/conda/issues. My best guess here is that the dependency solver is stuck somewhere.