anaconda navigator getting stuck at loading applications

Question

I have installed Anaconda on my Desktop running Ubuntu 18 Mate LTS. The output of

python --version

is

Python 3.6.5 :: Anaconda, Inc.

First of all, when I try to launch Anaconda Navigator using

anaconda-navigator 

the application gets stuck at Loading applications stage. I have to eventually kill this using CTRL + C / CTRL + Z . The anaconda navigator never launches.

Following this, I tried

conda update anaconda-navigator

and

conda update conda

None of these commands work.

I tried to look for the solution online and at one site, I was guided to use the following set of commands

source ~/anaconda*/bin/activate root
anaconda-navigator

Even this did not work. It was showing some SSL Verification Failed message. The message was as follows: -

 CondaHTTPError: HTTP 000 CONNECTION FAILED for url <https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch/repodata.json.bz2> Elapsed: - An HTTP error occurred when trying to retrieve this URL. HTTP errors are often intermittent, and a simple retry will get you on your way. If your current network has https://www.anaconda.com blocked, please file a support request with your network engineering team.

SSLError(MaxRetryError('HTTPSConnectionPool(host='repo.anaconda.com', port=443): Max retries exceeded with url: /pkgs/main/noarch/repodata.json.bz2 (Caused by SSLError(SSLError("bad handshake: Error([('SSL routines', 'ssl3_get_server_certificate', 'certificate verify failed')],)",),))',),)

Following this, I googled this problem and at one of the sites, the developers suggested me to use

conda config --set ssl_verify False

I did this. Then afterwards, I do not see the error message (obviously because ssl verify has been turned off). But then, instead of any error message, I keep on getting the following report at my terminal (no matter what conda command I use). The report looks something like this: -

environment variables:
                 CIO_TEST=<not set>
        CONDA_BACKUP_HOST=x86_64-conda_cos6-linux-gnu
        CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV=base
                CONDA_EXE=/home/upendra/anaconda3/bin/conda
             CONDA_PREFIX=/home/upendra/anaconda3
    CONDA_PROMPT_MODIFIER=(base)
         CONDA_PYTHON_EXE=/home/upendra/anaconda3/bin/python
               CONDA_ROOT=/home/upendra/anaconda3
              CONDA_SHLVL=1
                     PATH=/home/upendra/anaconda3/bin:/home/upendra/anaconda3/bin:/usr/local/sbi
                          n:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/g
                          ames:/snap/bin
       REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=<not set>
            SSL_CERT_FILE=<not set>
         UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=<set>
            XDG_SEAT_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Seat0
         XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session0
                ftp_proxy=<set>
               http_proxy=<set>
              https_proxy=<set>

     active environment : base
    active env location : /home/upendra/anaconda3
            shell level : 1
       user config file : /home/upendra/.condarc
 populated config files : /home/upendra/.condarc
          conda version : 4.5.9
    conda-build version : 3.10.5
         python version : 3.6.5.final.0
       base environment : /home/upendra/anaconda3  (writable)
           channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/free/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/free/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/pro/linux-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/pro/noarch
          package cache : /home/upendra/anaconda3/pkgs
                          /home/upendra/.conda/pkgs
       envs directories : /home/upendra/anaconda3/envs
                          /home/upendra/.conda/envs
               platform : linux-64
             user-agent : conda/4.5.9 requests/2.18.4 CPython/3.6.5 Linux/4.15.0-30-generic ubuntu/18.04 glibc/2.27
                UID:GID : 1000:1000
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

The interesting this is that the first time when I launched anaconda-navigator after installing it, navigator window did get launched. After that, I shut down my system after working and from then onward anaconda-navigator window would not launch. I am also not sure if this is due to internet connection or anaconda installation/configuration.

Any suggestions ?

Answer 1

There was an issue with proxy settings. It was solved. However there are some issues with anaconda navigator software. Its elements such as Spyder or ipython often fail to communicate with proxy properly particularly when there are credentials involved. As a result downloading datasets can often get involved.

I used this trick. I installed anaconda and configured the environment. Then I closed anaconda navigator window, launched Spyder/ipython from terminal and things always work for me.in case Spyder gives segmentation fault upon launch, simple downgrade the mkl package. The above tricks work like magic for me.