After conda update, python kernel crashes when matplotlib is used

by

Update 2021-11-06

  • The default pkgs/main channel for conda has reverted to using freetype 2.10.4 for Windows, per main / packages / freetype.
  • If you are still experiencing the issue, use conda list freetype to check the version: freetype != 2.11.0
    • If it is 2.11.0, then change the version per the solution, or conda update --all (providing your default channel isn’t changed in the .condarc config file).

Solution

  • If this is occurring after installing Anaconda, updating conda or freetype since Oct 27, 2021.
  • Go to the Anaconda prompt and downgrade freetype 2.11.0 in any affected environment.
    • conda install freetype=2.10.4
  • Relevant to any package using matplotlib and any IDE
    • For example, pandas.DataFrame.plot and seaborn
    • Jupyter, Spyder, VSCode, PyCharm, command line.

Discovery

  • An issue occurs after updating with the most current updates from conda, released Friday, Oct 29.
  • After updating with conda update --all, there’s an issue with anything related to matplotlib in any IDE (not just Jupyter).
    • I tested this in JupyterLab, PyCharm, and python from the command prompt.
    • PyCharm: Process finished with exit code -1073741819
    • JupyterLab: kernel just restarts and there are no associated errors or Traceback
    • command prompt: a blank interactive matplotlib window will appear briefly, and then a new command line appears.
  • The issue seems to be with conda update --all in (base), then any plot API that uses matplotlib (e.g. seaborn and pandas.DataFrame.plot) kills the kernel in any environment.
  • I had to reinstall Anaconda, but do not do an update of (base), then my other environments worked.
  • I have not figured out what specifically is causing the issue.
  • I tested the issue with python 3.8.12 and python 3.9.7
  • Current Testing:
    • Following is the conda revision log.
    • Prior to conda update --all this environment was working, but after the updates, plotting with matplotlib crashes the python kernel
  2021-10-31 10:47:22  (rev 3)
     bokeh  {2.3.3 (defaults/win-64) -> 2.4.1 (defaults/win-64)}
     click  {8.0.1 (defaults/noarch) -> 8.0.3 (defaults/noarch)}
     filelock  {3.0.12 (defaults/noarch) -> 3.3.1 (defaults/noarch)}
     freetype  {2.10.4 (defaults/win-64) -> 2.11.0 (defaults/win-64)}
     imagecodecs  {2021.6.8 (defaults/win-64) -> 2021.8.26 (defaults/win-64)}
     joblib  {1.0.1 (defaults/noarch) -> 1.1.0 (defaults/noarch)}
     lerc  {2.2.1 (defaults/win-64) -> 3.0 (defaults/win-64)}
     more-itertools  {8.8.0 (defaults/noarch) -> 8.10.0 (defaults/noarch)}
     pyopenssl  {20.0.1 (defaults/noarch) -> 21.0.0 (defaults/noarch)}
     scikit-learn  {0.24.2 (defaults/win-64) -> 1.0.1 (defaults/win-64)}
     statsmodels  {0.12.2 (defaults/win-64) -> 0.13.0 (defaults/win-64)}
     sympy  {1.8 (defaults/win-64) -> 1.9 (defaults/win-64)}
     tqdm  {4.62.2 (defaults/noarch) -> 4.62.3 (defaults/noarch)}
     xlwings  {0.24.7 (defaults/win-64) -> 0.24.9 (defaults/win-64)}
  • The issue seems to be freetype
    • Downgrading from 2.11.0 to 2.10.4 resolved the issue and made the environment work with matplotlib
  • Went to post a bug report and discovered there is [Bug]: Matplotlib crashes Python #21511

More Related Contents:

  1. Can’t install new packages for Python (Python 3.9.0, Windows 10)
  2. jupyter ModuleNotFoundError: No module named matplotlib
  3. Generating a PNG with matplotlib when DISPLAY is undefined
  4. How to run multiple Python versions on Windows
  5. Generate a heatmap in MatPlotLib using a scatter data set
  6. Is it possible to plot implicit equations using Matplotlib?
  7. What is the difference between drawing plots using plot, axes or figure in matplotlib?
  8. Get screenshot on Windows with Python?
  9. Matplotlib: Specify format of floats for tick labels
  10. Intersection of two graphs in Python, find the x value
  11. Matplotlib y axis values are not ordered [duplicate]
  12. Adding a legend to PyPlot in Matplotlib in the simplest manner possible
  13. pyplot common axes labels for subplots
  14. Set markers for individual points on a line in Matplotlib
  15. How to add value labels on a bar chart
  16. Plot two histograms on single chart with matplotlib
  17. Is it still necessary to install CUDA before using the conda tensorflow-gpu package?
  18. How to set xlim and ylim for a subplot in matplotlib [duplicate]
  19. Matplotlib scatter plot with legend
  20. Seaborn showing scientific notation in heatmap for 3-digit numbers
  21. Removing minimize/maximize buttons in Tkinter
  22. imshow(img, cmap=cm.gray) shows a white for 128 value
  23. Handling \r\n vs \n newlines in python on Mac vs Windows
  24. How to annotate each segment of a stacked bar chart
  25. plotting results of hierarchical clustering on top of a matrix of data
  26. How to remove lines in a Matplotlib plot
  27. How to smooth matplotlib contour plot?
  28. How do I plot list of tuples in Python?
  29. Changing the “locale preferred encoding” in Python 3 in Windows
  30. conda fails to create environment from yml

Leave a Comment