import matplotlib.pyplot hangs on ubuntu

Question:

I am using a Python3 installation in a Ubuntu distribution in WSL2 on a Windows 10 machine.

Over the last two months, i did not code that much. Now i started again and faced the following issue:

The following code hangs for ~2min:

import matplotlib.pyplot

After 2 min, i got the following output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "a.py", line 5, in <module>
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 2469, in <module>
    switch_backend(rcParams["backend"])
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 277, in switch_backend
    class backend_mod(matplotlib.backend_bases._Backend):
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 278, in backend_mod
    locals().update(vars(importlib.import_module(backend_name)))
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt4agg.py", line 6, in <module>
    from .backend_qt5agg import (
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5agg.py", line 11, in <module>
    from .backend_qt5 import (
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_qt5.py", line 13, in <module>
    import matplotlib.backends.qt_editor.figureoptions as figureoptions
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/qt_editor/figureoptions.py", line 11, in <module>
    from matplotlib.backends.qt_compat import QtGui
  File "/home/markus/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/qt_compat.py", line 179, in <module>
    raise ImportError("Failed to import any qt binding")
ImportError: Failed to import any qt binding

The issue has already been described here: import matplotlib.pyplot hangs

But the suggested solutions did not work.

I then ran

sudo pip install --upgrade matplotlib

which helped, as the import command works now, but it still takes 2 min to execute!

Do you know, why this command takes so much time?

Asked By: Markus

||

Answers:

Uninstalling and reinstalling Matlplotlib did not help.

Uninstalling and reinstalling python 3.X did not help.

What did work was resetting the Ubuntu installation in the windows settings, e.g. see here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/761360/how-do-i-reset-my-installation-of-ubuntu-on-windows

Answered By: Markus