ipython server can't launch: No module named notebook.notebookapp

I've been trying to setup an ipython server following several tutorials (since none was exactly my case). A couple days ago, I did manage to get it to the point where it was launching but then was not able to access it via url. Today it's not launching anymore and I can't find much about this specific error I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/ipython", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('ipython==4.0.0-dev', 'console_scripts', 'ipython')()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ipython-4.0.0_dev-py2.7.egg/IPython/__init__.py", line 118, in start_ipython
    return launch_new_instance(argv=argv, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 591, in launch_instance
    app.initialize(argv)
  File "<string>", line 2, in initialize
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 75, in catch_config_error
    return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ipython-4.0.0_dev-py2.7.egg/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 302, in initialize
    super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).initialize(argv)
  File "<string>", line 2, in initialize
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 75, in catch_config_error
    return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ipython-4.0.0_dev-py2.7.egg/IPython/core/application.py", line 386, in initialize
    self.parse_command_line(argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ipython-4.0.0_dev-py2.7.egg/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 297, in parse_command_line
    return super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).parse_command_line(argv)
  File "<string>", line 2, in parse_command_line
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 75, in catch_config_error
    return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 487, in parse_command_line
    return self.initialize_subcommand(subc, subargv)
  File "<string>", line 2, in initialize_subcommand
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 75, in catch_config_error
    return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/traitlets-4.0.0-py2.7.egg/traitlets/config/application.py", line 418, in initialize_subcommand
    subapp = import_item(subapp)
  File "build/bdist.linux-x86_64/egg/ipython_genutils/importstring.py", line 31, in import_item
ImportError: No module named notebook.notebookapp

So about the setup, I have installed the anaconda distrib of ipython, pyzmq & tornado libraries. I have created a profile nbserver and the config file is as follows - ipython.config.py:

c = get_config()
c.IPKernalApp.pylab = 'inline'
c.NotebookApp.certfile = u'/home/ludo/.ipython/profile_nbserver/mycert.pem'
c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'
c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False
c.NotebookApp.password = u'sha1:e6cb2aa9a[...]'
c.NotebookApp.port = 9999
c.NotebookManager.notebook_dir = u'/var/www/ipynb/'
c.NotebookApp.base_project_url = '/ipynb/'
c.NotebookApp.base_kernel_url = '/ipynb/'
c.NotebookApp.webapp_settings = {'static_url_prefix':'/ipynb/static/'}

I really don't know where to look for clues anymore - and I'm probably lacking a greater understanding of how all this works to figure it out. My ultimate goal is to then use the answer to this question on SO to complete a setup behind apache and eventually connect it to colaboratory - but seems like it should launch first.

Many thanks for any help :)

Solution 1:

This should fix the issue:

pip install jupyter

Solution 2:

I received the same problem when upgrading IPython. At the moment the answer was written, it was a bug linked to the latest 4 version. If a similar problem occurs for which you wish to switch back to the stable version 3.2.1:

pip uninstall -y IPython
pip install ipython==3.2.1

• note: the -y option indicates "yes I want to uninstall" with no interaction.
• note 2: possible duplicate in ImportError: No module named notebook.notebookapp

Solution 3:

So to close this thread, and in case it helps anyone, my mistake was to have installed and used the dev version of ipython blindly following a tutorial, thinking I was using the anaconda instance I installed earlier (which was not even in my PATH).

Anyhow I:

• uninstalled that ipython dev instance
• added anaconda/bin to my zsh path (add it to ~/.zshrc - that's why it was not even in my path after install) // at this point the server was launching fine but I couldn't access it in my browser >> firewall problems.
• opened my port of choice in my firewall (help for linode or ubuntu in general)

And everything works fine now.

Solution 4:

Someone mentioned this in a comment, and it (almost) worked for me:

pip install ipython[notebook]

pip gave an error about the hash not matching. However, what ultimately worked was:

sudo port install py27-notebook

And for py3:

sudo port install py35-notebook