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I am trying to use Qt as matplotlib backend. i have checked it both on kaggle and google colab, but problem is same.

When i write 

%matplotlib qt5

i got following error

ImportError: Cannot load backend 'Qt5Agg' which requires the 'qt5' interactive framework, as 'headless' is currently running

When i print default backend, its already Qt5Agg

import matplotlib
print(matplotlib.get_backend())
Valeriy
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Talha Anwar
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    I'm getting this in Jupyter Notebook launched from Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). On regular windows it works fine. – TomNorway Aug 05 '19 at 12:14

2 Answers2

10

This is happening because Google Colab and Jupyter run on virtual environments which do not support GUI outputs as you cannot open new windows through a browser.

Running it locally on a code editor(Spyder, or even IDLE) ensures that it can open a new window for the GUI to initialize.

For coding the GUI it is best to do it locally on a full-fledged code editor.

am-3
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0

There is a potential solution for this issue: Install and run a Xvfb instance in your server. Then check the environment variable $DISPLAY set properly. Try matplotlib use qt5 again.

Roaid
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