Conda Issues

Conda issues can be the root cause for just about any issue on this page. Scroll through this section for what may look familiar, and follow those instructions:

  • 404 error, The channel is not accessible or is invalid.

    If you are receiving this, you may be victim of us changing the channel name out from underneath you (Sorry!). Remove the offending channel(s):

    conda config --remove channels https://mooseframework.inl.gov/conda/moose
conda config --remove channels https://mooseframework.com/conda/moose
conda config --remove channels https://mooseframework.inl.gov/conda/moose

    If you receive errors about a channel not present (CondaKeyError), please ignore. You most likely will not have all three 'old' channels. Next, add the correct channel:

    conda config --add channels https://conda.software.inl.gov/public

    When you're finished, a conda config --show channels should resemble the following:

    $ conda config --show channels
channels:
  - https://conda.software.inl.gov/public
  - conda-forge
  - defaults

  • Download error, Timeouts

    Conda packages we produce can be quite large, and can trigger the default download timeout imposed upon by Conda's download routines. You can increase this time in the following way:

    conda config --set remote_read_timeout_secs new_timeout

    Where new_timeout is an integer greater than 60 (the default in seconds).

  • command not found: conda

    You have yet to install conda, or your path to it is incorrect or not set. You will need to recall how you installed conda. Our instructions ask to have Miniforge installed to your home directory: ~/miniforge. Which requires you to set your PATH accordingly:

    export PATH=~/miniforge/bin:$PATH

    With PATH set, try to run again, what ever command you were initially attempting.

  • conda activate moose

    If conda activate moose is failing like so:

    Run 'conda init --all' to be able to run conda activate/deactivate
and start a new shell session. Or use conda to activate/deactivate.

    ...it's possible you have yet to perform a conda init --all.

    It could also mean you have an older version of Conda, or that the environment you are trying to activate is somewhere other than where conda thinks it should be, or simply missing / not yet created. Unfortunately, much of what can be diagnosed, is going to be beyond the scope of this document, and better left to the support teams at Conda. What we can attempt, is to create a new environment and go from there:

    conda create -n testing -q -y

    The above should create an empty environment. Try and activate it:

    conda activate testing

    If the command continues to ask you to perform a conda init --all or the command failed, or the conda create command before it, the error will likely be involved with how Conda was first installed (perhaps with sudo rights, or as another user). You should look into removing this installation of conda, and starting over with our Getting Started instructions. Failures of this nature can also mean your conda resource file (~/.condarc) is in bad shape. We have no way of diagnosing this in a troubleshooting fashion, as this file can contain more than just moose-related configs. For reference, the bare minimum should resemble the following:

    channels:
  - https://conda.software.inl.gov/public
  - conda-forge
  - defaults

  • conda init

    If conda init --all is failing, or similarly doing nothing, it is possible that Conda simply does not support the shell you are operating in. To figure out what shell you are operating in run the following:

    echo $0

    What ever returns here, is the type of shell you are operating in. Please verify this is a shell that Conda supports.

  • Your issue not listed

    The quick fix-attempt, is to delete the faulty environment and re-install it:

    conda activate base
conda env remove -n moose
conda create -n moose moose-dev=2025.06.13=mpich
conda activate moose

    If the above re-install method ultimately failed, it is time to submit your errors to the discussion forum.