Installing Anaconda on Ubuntu

Installing Anaconda on Linode (or other Linux system) using the CLI may look daunting, but don’t let it scare you. It is possible to install it without using a graphical environment.

Follow these instructions to download the most recent version of the Anaconda installer and use it to install Anaconda. At the time of the writing of this guide, the latest version was 2020.11.

1. Connect to your Linode using SSH (or Lish) and log in with your username and password.

2. Ensure you are in the Bash shell by entering bash.

3. If you don’t have a Downloads directory already, create one by entering mkdir Downloads.

4. Switch to your new Downloads directory by entering cd Downloads.

5. In your browser, go to Anaconda Individual Edition downloads and copy the link of the “64-Bit (x86) Installer,” but don’t download it.

6. At the command prompt of the terminal, enter the following command, substituting the URL with the one you previously copied:

   wget https://repo.anaconda.com/archive/Anaconda3-2020.11-Linux-x86_64.sh
   

   The “Anaconda3-2020.11” portion changes as new versions are released.

7. Press Enter (or Return), the file is large and takes a little while to download completely.

8. After the download is complete and you’re back at the command prompt, enter the following command, substituting the filename for the one you just downloaded:

   bash ~/Downloads/Anaconda3-2020.11-Linux-x86_64.sh
   

9. Scroll through the license agreement and agree to it by entering Yes.

10. The installer prompts you to press Enter (or Return) to accept the default install location which is a directory named anaconda3 in the home directory. We recommend accepting the default install location. The installer runs for a few minutes.

11. The installer prompts you “to initialize Anaconda3 by running conda init.” We recommend entering yes (if you enter no, conda will not modify your shell scripts).

12. The installer is done when you see this output:

    Thank you for installing Anaconda!

13. For the installation to take effect, enter source ~/.bashrc.

14. To verify the installation, enter conda info. The output should look something like this:

         active environment : base
        active env location : /home/example_user/anaconda3
                shell level : 1
           user config file : /home/example_user/.condarc
     populated config files :
              conda version : 4.10.1
        conda-build version : 3.20.5
             python version : 3.8.5.final.0
           virtual packages : __linux=5.4.0=0
                              __glibc=2.31=0
                              __unix=0=0
                              __archspec=1=x86_64
           base environment : /home/example_user/anaconda3  (writable)
          conda av data dir : /home/example_user/anaconda3/etc/conda
      conda av metadata url : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main
               channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
                              https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
                              https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
                              https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
              package cache : /home/example_user/anaconda3/pkgs
                              /home/example_user/.conda/pkgs
           envs directories : /home/example_user/anaconda3/envs
                              /home/example_user/.conda/envs
                   platform : linux-64
                 user-agent : conda/4.10.1 requests/2.25.1 CPython/3.8.5 Linux/5.4.0-72-generic ubuntu/20.04.2 glibc/2.31
                    UID:GID : 1000:1000
                 netrc file : None
               offline mode : False

15. Lastly, remove the installer file by entering the following command, being sure to change the name of the file to the one you previously downloaded:

    rm Anaconda3-2020.11-Linux-x86_64.sh

Much like updating Ubuntu, there are two steps in updating Anaconda. After logging into your Linode using SSH or opening the terminal application on another system:

1. Update the conda utility by entering conda update conda.

2. Once that’s finished, update Anaconda by entering conda update anaconda.

• Anaconda has an extensive knowledge base for Anaconda Individual Edition (and other versions) on the official website.

• Especially important for CLI users is getting to know the conda utility. The conda project has a “20-minute guide to getting started with conda” available here.

More Information

You may wish to consult the following resources for additional information on this topic. While these are provided in the hope that they will be useful, please note that we cannot vouch for the accuracy or timeliness of externally hosted materials.

• Anaconda Documentation