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

Question

When I use google colaboratory, I face this problem, I have searched it on stackoverflow, but few answer, could any guy help me to figure it out? THX!

I have tried to reinstall matplotlib in several ways, and install tk-dev, all of them don't work.

import matplotlib
import glob


**matplotlib.use('TKAgg')**


import matplotlib.image as mpimg

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.patches as patches
import matplotlib.ticker as ticker

There comes out an ImportError like the Title :"ImportError: Cannot load backend 'TkAgg' which requires the 'tk' interactive framework, as 'headless' is currently running"

Nicolas Gervais · Answer 1 · 2020-05-04T00:45:51.483

12

What solved the problem for me was to restart my kernel, import the following first:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('TKAgg')

Then,

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

You probably imported matplotlib with another framework before you tried to change to TKAgg. Restart your kernel.

edited May 04 '20 at 00:45

answered Aug 24 '19 at 08:47

Nicolas Gervais

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1

Is there a way to solve this without restarting the kernel? – Mathews24 Jan 05 '22 at 16:14

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered May 18 '20 at 06:41

5

matplotlib.use('TKAgg') gets there too late maybe (?). I had success setting the environment variable instead.

export MPLBACKEND=TKAgg

Really odd error message. I was also trying this inside a docker container and had to set DISPLAY as well. Maybe there are other errors that aren't being reported. Using reload(matplotlib) did not help either.

answered May 18 '20 at 06:41

jozxyqk

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That made my day! I had a BASH script running a python script and adding this before running the actual py script made it. – kimy82 May 26 '21 at 10:42
Tried this approach w/o success :( any more ideas? – Ilan Aizelman WS Dec 07 '21 at 12:22
@joyzxyqk What did you set DISPLAY to? :0.0? – snark May 04 '22 at 15:10
1

@snark For docker I assume I had `export DISPLAY=:0`, same as the host's `$DISPLAY`. I was also mounting `/tmp/.X11-unix` so that would work. I guess an alternative would be X forwarding over an ssh connection to the container. – jozxyqk May 04 '22 at 21:50

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '22 at 11:30

1

I solved the problem by changing matplotlib.use('TkAgg') into matplotlib.use('Agg').

answered Mar 17 '22 at 11:30

Pol Albacar

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '21 at 04:36

0

I repeat matplotlib.use('TkAgg') again and again to fix the problem. It's weird but work for me!

import matplotlib
i = 0
while i < 10:
    i += 1
    try:
        matplotlib.use('TkAgg')
        break
    except:
        print(i)

answered Apr 25 '21 at 04:36

zjLiang

1

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 23 '22 at 02:40

0

For me, I was running ubuntu with docker on windows and the reason for this error was that I didn't start VcXsrv Windows X Server. when I started X Server, the error disappeared.

answered May 23 '22 at 02:40

Adryen

1

score -2 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 16:08

-2

The error message clearly explains that TkAgg needs tkinter library.

You can fix this error by importing tkinter library ahead of matplotlib, for example:

import tkinter
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('TkAgg')

answered Jun 21 '19 at 16:08

High Performance Rangsiman

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It is not required to `import tkinter` explicitly – gies0r Jul 03 '19 at 07:50
I agree with @gies0r , it neither fix the problem nor required to be added explicitly. – r_e Mar 12 '20 at 13:27
For me, this suggestion worked. (Setup: ssh -X (x forwarding) to another machine, on which I again forward x into a rootless podman container -- where I finally start python). – FZeiser May 12 '22 at 07:42

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

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