Anaconda: unable to import pylab

Question

I cannot import pylab use the latest version of Anaconda (64-bit Linux). Other packages work fine. (Note: I do not have sudo access)

 In [1]: import pylab as pl --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ImportError Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-6-2cf12a0af6ff> in <module>() ----> 1 import pylab as pl /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pylab.py in <module>() ----> 1 from matplotlib.pylab import * 2 import matplotlib.pylab 3 __doc__ = matplotlib.pylab.__doc__ /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pylab.py in <module>() 267 from numpy.linalg import * 268 --> 269 from matplotlib.pyplot import * 270 271 # provide the recommended module abbrevs in the pylab namespace /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py in <module>() 96 97 from matplotlib.backends import pylab_setup ---> 98 _backend_mod, new_figure_manager, draw_if_interactive, _show = pylab_setup() 99 100 /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/__init__.pyc in pylab_setup() 23 backend_name = 'matplotlib.backends.%s'%backend_name.lower() 24 backend_mod = __import__(backend_name, ---> 25 globals(),locals(),[backend_name]) 26 27 # Things we pull in from all backends /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py in <module>() 11 12 from backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg ---> 13 from backend_qt4 import QtCore, QtGui, FigureManagerQT, FigureCanvasQT,\ 14 show, draw_if_interactive, backend_version, \ 15 NavigationToolbar2QT /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4.py in <module>() 23 figureoptions = None 24 ---> 25 from qt4_compat import QtCore, QtGui, _getSaveFileName, __version__ 26 27 backend_version = __version__ /home/josh/installs/conda/1.7.0/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/qt4_compat.py in <module>() 34 # Now perform the imports. 35 if QT_API in (QT_API_PYQT, QT_API_PYQTv2): ---> 36 import sip 37 if QT_API == QT_API_PYQTv2: 38 if QT_API_ENV == 'pyqt': ImportError: No module named sip 

If i try

 > conda install sip 

I get:

 Error: No packages found matching: sip 

I also get errors with:

 $ pip install sip 1 Downloading/unpacking sip You are installing a potentially insecure and unverifiable file. Future v ersions of pip will default to disallowing insecure files. Downloading sip-4.15.2.zip (899kB): 899kB downloaded Running setup.py egg_info for package sip Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 16, in <module> IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/pip_build_josh/ sip/setup.py' Complete output from command python setup.py egg_info: Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 16, in <module> IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/tmp/pip_build_josh/sip/ setup.py' ---------------------------------------- Cleaning up... Command python setup.py egg_info failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip_build _josh/sip Storing complete log in /home/josh/.pip/pip.log 

Any thoughts on why?

Answer 1

Just this problem was related to trying qt backend matplotlib, try:

 import PyQt4 

If you do not have PyQt4, you probably have PySide

 import PySide 

If so, you need to set matplotlib.rcParams['backend.qt4'] == 'PySide' not 'PyQt4' . You can also do this in the matplotlibrc file ( ~ / .matplotlib / matplotlibrc )

 # find and change line: backend.qt4 : PySide 

Note. If you do not have a matplotlibrc file, you can copy it from the matplotlib source directory.

 import os import matplotlib mpl_dir = os.path.dirname(matplotlib.__file__) os.system("cp {}/mpl-data/matplotlibrc ~/.matplotlib/".format(mpl_dir))