Problem with Keras installation in Anaconda

Question

I'm trying to install Keras in anaconda from the instructions given here.

I ran the command conda install -c conda-forge keras and then after that, I pressed y when the prompt appeared asking me to press y/n. Then some libraries were downloaded and immediately after that the anaconda prompt crashed.

I looked at this thread and I couldn't try installing it using pip because every time I activate the environment, it crashes in a few seconds after automatically running the following commands:

C:\Users\ashut>python C:\Users\ashut\Anaconda3\envs\py36\etc\keras\load_config.py  1>temp.txt

C:\Users\ashut>set /p KERAS_BACKEND= 0<temp.txt

C:\Users\ashut>del temp.txt

C:\Users\ashut>python -c "import keras"  1>nul 2>&1

I could barely manage to get a screenshot of the error that is generated after the commands given above are executed. I don't know what's happening here:

And then it crashes.

I expected at least the instructions on anaconda's own site to be reliable, but sadly this doesn't seems to be the case. If there's any other method to install Keras in anaconda without losing this environment, I'd be more than grateful to know.

Answer 1

You are missing build tools. Anaconda depends on their presence and it cannot supply them by itself, as these are proprietary Microsoft tools. To fix the problem install them from here. After you reboot your computer, Anaconda should work just fine.

pip works for you since it takes a binary, it does not compile it. It's suboptimal and in case of deep learning performance is important. Check e.g. this article to learn about differences between conda and pypi tensorflow.