I recently installed Anaconda on my Xubuntu 16.04 system. To launch the application from a terminal, I simply use anaconda-navigator
and it works brilliantly.
Now I wanted to create a desktop launcher for the same and add it to my xfce Whisker menu as well. So I created a desktop launcher with the following content.
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Anaconda-Navigator
GenericName=Anaconda
Comment=Scientific PYthon Development EnviRonment - Python3
Exec=/home/meghana/anaconda3/bin/anaconda-navigator
Categories=Development;Science;IDE;Qt;
Icon=spyder3
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=text/x-python;
But when I try to open the application from the launcher, I get directed to a local HTML file with the following error message:
Navigator Error
An unexpected error occurred on Navigator start-up
Report
Please report this issue in the anaconda issue tracker
Main Error
byte indices must be integers or slices, not str
Traceback
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/exceptions.py", line 75, in exception_handler
return_value = func(*args, **kwargs)
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/app/start.py", line 115, in start_app
window = run_app(splash)
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/app/start.py", line 58, in run_app
window = MainWindow(splash=splash)
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/widgets/main_window.py", line 160, in __init__
self.api = AnacondaAPI()
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/api/anaconda_api.py", line 1205, in AnacondaAPI
ANACONDA_API = _AnacondaAPI()
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/api/anaconda_api.py", line 65, in __init__
self._conda_api = CondaAPI()
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/api/conda_api.py", line 1622, in CondaAPI
CONDA_API = _CondaAPI()
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/api/conda_api.py", line 340, in __init__
self.set_conda_prefix()
File "/home/meghana/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/site-
packages/anaconda_navigator/api/conda_api.py", line 489, in set_conda_prefix
self.ROOT_PREFIX = info['root_prefix']
TypeError: byte indices must be integers or slices, not str
I cannot for the life of me figure out why this is happening, or what I should do.
Kindly advise.
NOTE:
Before reporting this question as a duplicate (such as of this one), please note that I am not asking instructions on how to create desktop launchers. I have searched a zillion times through several online forums in order to find a solution, but I have failed.
Best Answer
It seems like the
.bashrc
environment fails to load with your desktop launcher. That is why you need to manually specify the$PATH
in the command that you want to execute. Try editing your desktop file (or create a newAnaconda.desktop
file, if you have deleted the old one) with the following content.Did you notice the difference? Read this article on the anatomy of a
.desktop
file to learn more.In order to add the application to your applications menu, simply copy the desktop file to
/usr/share/applications
. In order to do so, fire up a terminal and navigate to the directory where your desktop file is located, then type in the following command.sudo cp Anaconda.desktop /usr/share/applications
Obviously, you have to replace the name Anaconda above by whatever name you have given to your desktop file. Hope this helps.
Cheers!