Windows installation - pkg_dirs gets bad path \\server\share\conda\pkgs

[ayhteo]

Solution to issue cannot be found in the documentation.

• I checked the documentation.

Issue

This concerns a fresh installation on Windows OS 10.0.22000 N/A Build 22000 x64.

When using the Miniforge-pypy3-Windows-x86_64 Miniforge3-Windows-x86_64 installation, for some reason the package cache default path is assigned to \\server\share\conda\pkgs, which then throws the following error whenever I try to do conda update or conda create commands:

NotWritableError: The current user does not have write permissions to a required path. path: \\server\share\conda\pkgs\urls.txt

When I use conda config --show pkgs_dirs, I get the following list:

• \server\share\conda\pkgs
• C:\Users\username\miniconda3\pkgs

Hence I ran conda config —add pkgs_dirs C:\Users\username\miniconda3\pkgs which pushed the latter path to the top of the list. From thereon, my conda installation is now working and I can create environments as per normal.

I had the same issue with miniconda. The SHA256 checksum was correct.

Installed packages

# packages in environment at C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
brotlipy                  0.7.0           py310he2412df_1004    conda-forge
bzip2                     1.0.8                h8ffe710_4    conda-forge
ca-certificates           2022.6.15            h5b45459_0    conda-forge
certifi                   2022.6.15       py310h5588dad_0    conda-forge
cffi                      1.15.1          py310hcbf9ad4_0    conda-forge
charset-normalizer        2.1.1              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
colorama                  0.4.5              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
conda                     4.14.0          py310h5588dad_0    conda-forge
conda-package-handling    1.8.1           py310h4f637d6_1    conda-forge
cryptography              37.0.4          py310ha857299_0    conda-forge
idna                      3.3                pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
libffi                    3.4.2                h8ffe710_5    conda-forge
libsqlite                 3.39.2               h8ffe710_1    conda-forge
libzlib                   1.2.12               h8ffe710_2    conda-forge
menuinst                  1.4.19          py310h5588dad_0    conda-forge
miniforge_console_shortcut 1.0                  h57928b3_0    conda-forge
openssl                   1.1.1q               h8ffe710_0    conda-forge
pip                       22.2.2             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pycosat                   0.6.3           py310he2412df_1010    conda-forge
pycparser                 2.21               pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pyopenssl                 22.0.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pysocks                   1.7.1           py310h5588dad_5    conda-forge
python                    3.10.6          h9a09f29_0_cpython    conda-forge
python_abi                3.10                    2_cp310    conda-forge
requests                  2.28.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
ruamel_yaml               0.15.80         py310he2412df_1007    conda-forge
setuptools                65.2.0          py310h5588dad_0    conda-forge
six                       1.16.0             pyh6c4a22f_0    conda-forge
tk                        8.6.12               h8ffe710_0    conda-forge
toolz                     0.12.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tqdm                      4.64.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tzdata                    2022c                h191b570_0    conda-forge
ucrt                      10.0.20348.0         h57928b3_0    conda-forge
urllib3                   1.26.11            pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
vc                        14.2                 hb210afc_6    conda-forge
vs2015_runtime            14.29.30037          h902a5da_6    conda-forge
wheel                     0.37.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
win_inet_pton             1.1.0           py310h5588dad_4    conda-forge
xz                        5.2.6                h8d14728_0    conda-forge
yaml                      0.2.5                h8ffe710_2    conda-forge

Environment info

active environment : base
    active env location : C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3
            shell level : 1
       user config file : C:\Users\sophi\.condarc
 populated config files : C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3\.condarc
                          C:\Users\sophi\.condarc
          conda version : 4.14.0
    conda-build version : not installed
         python version : 3.10.6.final.0
       virtual packages : __win=0=0
                          __archspec=1=x86_64
       base environment : C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3  (writable)
      conda av data dir : C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3\etc\conda
  conda av metadata url : None
           channel URLs : https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-canary/win-64
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-canary/noarch
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/win-64
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/win-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/win-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/msys2/win-64
                          https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/msys2/noarch
          package cache : \\server\share\conda\pkgs
                          C:\Users\sophi\miniconda3\pkgs
       envs directories : C:\Users\sophi\miniforge3\envs
                          C:\Users\sophi\.conda\envs
                          C:\Users\sophi\AppData\Local\conda\conda\envs
               platform : win-64
             user-agent : conda/4.14.0 requests/2.28.1 CPython/3.10.6 Windows/10 Windows/10.0.22000
          administrator : True
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

[hmaarrfk]

Thank you for the detailed report and workaround.

Do you know if this happens only for the pypy builds?

[hmaarrfk]

Might you have had an old installation of conda?

Looking at our logs, we "install" mambaforge-pypy3 and we output conda-info. I see:

***** Print conda info *****
+++ conda.exe info

     active environment : base
    active env location : C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge
            shell level : 3
       user config file : C:\Users\runneradmin\.condarc
 populated config files : C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge\.condarc
                          C:\Users\runneradmin\.condarc
          conda version : 4.14.0
    conda-build version : not installed
         python version : 3.9.12.final.0
       virtual packages : __win=0=0
                          __archspec=1=x86_64
       base environment : C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge  (writable)
      conda av data dir : C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge\etc\conda
  conda av metadata url : None
           channel URLs : https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/win-64
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch
          package cache : C:\Users\runneradmin\conda_pkgs_dir
       envs directories : C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge\envs
                          C:\Users\runneradmin\.conda\envs
                          C:\Users\runneradmin\AppData\Local\conda\conda\envs
               platform : win-64
             user-agent : conda/4.14.0 requests/2.28.1 PyPy/3.9.12 Windows/10 Windows/10.0.20348
          administrator : True
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

+++ conda.exe list
# packages in environment at C:\Users\runneradmin\miniforge:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
bzip2                     1.0.8                h8ffe710_4    conda-forge
ca-certificates           2022.6.15            h5b45459_0    conda-forge
certifi                   2022.6.15        py39h0d475fb_0    conda-forge
charset-normalizer        2.1.1              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
colorama                  0.4.5              pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
conda                     4.14.0           py39h0d475fb_0    conda-forge
conda-package-handling    1.8.1            py39hf22a004_1    conda-forge
cryptography              37.0.4           py39h2286605_0    conda-forge
expat                     2.4.8                h39d44d4_0    conda-forge
idna                      3.3                pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
libffi                    3.4.2                h8ffe710_5    conda-forge
libsqlite                 3.39.2               h8ffe710_1    conda-forge
libzlib                   1.2.12               h8ffe710_2    conda-forge
menuinst                  1.4.19           py39h0d475fb_0    conda-forge
miniforge_console_shortcut 1.0                  h57928b3_0    conda-forge
openssl                   1.1.1q               h8ffe710_0    conda-forge
pip                       22.2.2             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pycosat                   0.6.3           py39hdb6a8a0_1010    conda-forge
pyopenssl                 22.0.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
pypy3.9                   7.3.9                hc3b0203_4    conda-forge
pysocks                   1.7.1            py39h0d475fb_5    conda-forge
python                    3.9.12                0_73_pypy    conda-forge
python_abi                3.9               2_pypy39_pp73    conda-forge
requests                  2.28.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
ruamel_yaml               0.15.80         py39hdb6a8a0_1007    conda-forge
setuptools                65.2.0           py39h0d475fb_0    conda-forge
six                       1.16.0             pyh6c4a22f_0    conda-forge
sqlite                    3.39.2               h8ffe710_1    conda-forge
tk                        8.6.12               h8ffe710_0    conda-forge
toolz                     0.12.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
tqdm                      4.64.0             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
ucrt                      10.0.20348.0         h57928b3_0    conda-forge
urllib3                   1.24.3                     py_1    conda-forge
vc                        14.2                 hb210afc_6    conda-forge
vs2015_runtime            14.29.30037          h902a5da_6    conda-forge
wheel                     0.37.1             pyhd8ed1ab_0    conda-forge
win_inet_pton             1.1.0            py39h0d475fb_4    conda-forge
xz                        5.2.6                h8d14728_0    conda-forge
yaml                      0.2.5                h8ffe710_2    conda-forge
zlib                      1.2.12               h8ffe710_2    conda-forge

https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/runs/7985353354?check_suite_focus=true

[ayhteo]

I was helping someone else with their conda installation, and I believe there is a deeper problem to this having spoken to them. They began from a Python 3.9 Miniconda3 Windows 64-bit installation.

During their fresh installation, they encountered a "KeyError('pkgs_dirs')", not dissimilar from this recent post on stack overflow.

I think the reported problem above was introduced when they attempted the following suggestion in the interim, which ended up appending to the .condarc file.
conda config --add pkgs_dirs \\server\share\conda\pkgs

This was the .condarc file:

channels:
  - conda-canary
  - conda-forge
  - defaults
pkgs_dirs:
  - \\server\share\conda\pkgs
  - C:\Users\sophi\miniconda3\pkgs

They than managed to fix the "KeyError('pkgs_dirs')" issue by downgrading to pywin32==228, originally configured to 303, which solved the pkg_dirs issue. This then spawned the NotWritableError which I had reported, without knowing that the earlier attempts.

I switched to the Miniforge3-Windows-x86_64 installation (not the pypy build, apologies, this was me getting the wrong link), to check it was not the installation issue.

[hmaarrfk]

OK yeah..... this is somewhat a hard problem for us to solve.

That .condarc file is a user file, that is meant to be "shared" between all installations. Maybe there is some better interaction we can have.

But for now, I think we should add instructions to remove it. I don't think we will have a programatic solution fast enough.

[ayhteo]

Thanks - I understand it better now, and appreciate that you have compiled this into an issue detailing similar problems others have faced. Certainly for me the .condarc file was a spanner in the works without prior knowledge of what was previously done on the machine.