Trying to install Theano but don't have an Nvidia card

Question

I am following:

http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/install_windows.html#install-windows

to install theano. I just want to play with the code, I don't need to use a GPU to improve my speed.

I don't have an Nvidia card and when I try to install cuda, the installation fails. I watch as the installation tool deletes the files I need.

I am using Anaconda python so I commented this line:

REM CALL %SCISOFT%\WinPython-64bit-2.7.9.4\scripts\env.bat

In the:

C:\SciSoft\env.bat

file. I gave up and tried to install theano with easy_install. I try to import Theano from python, it fails with:

ton of stuff
Problem occurred during compilation with the command line below: C:\SciSoft\TDM-GCC-64\bin\g++.exe -shared -g -march=bdver2 -mmmx -mno-3dnow -mss
more stuff
C:\Users\xxx\Anaconda\libs/python27.lib: error adding symbols: File in wr ong format collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exception Traceback (most recent call last) in () ----> 1 import theano

C:\Users\xxx\Anaconda\lib\site-packages\theano-0.7.0-py2.7.egg\theano__i nit__.pyc in ()

Even more stuff
Exception: Compilation failed (return status=1): C:\Users\xxxx\Anaconda\li . collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit statusrong format

Answer 1

If you don't need to run on GPU then don't worry about installing Visual Studio or CUDA. I think you just need Anaconda, but maybe also TDM GCC.

From a clean environment I install the latest version of Anaconda then run

conda install mingw libpython

I'd recommend installing Theano from Github (the bleeding edge version) since the "stable" release is not updated often and there are usually many significant improvements (especially for performance) in the bleeding edge version in comparison to the stable version.

There is no need to perform all the steps in the "Configuring the Environment" section; just make sure your C++ compiler is in the PATH.

If Theano fails to work after these minimal installation instructions, I'd recommend solving each problem on a case-by-case basis instead of trying to run the full installation instructions provided in the documentation (which may be out of date).