Trying to import scikit-learn to PyCharm on Mac M1

February 7, 2022

I’m new to Python, so please excuse me in advance for possible silly mistakes

I wanted to install the sklearn package in PyCharm to use in one of my projects. However, I was unable to do so, I always got the same mistake (below is an extract):

pip install scikit-learn  # input


Collecting scikit-learn
  Using cached scikit-learn-1.0.2.tar.gz (6.7 MB)
  Installing build dependencies ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error
  
  × pip subprocess to install build dependencies did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [148 lines of output]
      Ignoring numpy: markers 'python_version == "3.7" and platform_machine != "aarch64" and platform_system != "AIX" and platform_python_implementation != "PyPy"' don't match your environment
      Collecting setuptools<60.0
        Using cached setuptools-59.8.0-py3-none-any.whl (952 kB)
      Collecting wheel
        Using cached wheel-0.37.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (35 kB)
      Collecting Cython>=0.28.5
        Using cached Cython-0.29.27-py2.py3-none-any.whl (983 kB)
      Collecting oldest-supported-numpy
        Using cached oldest_supported_numpy-2022.1.30-py3-none-any.whl (3.9 kB)
      Collecting scipy>=1.1.0
        Using cached scipy-1.8.0.tar.gz (38.3 MB)
        Installing build dependencies: started
        Installing build dependencies: finished with status 'done'
        Getting requirements to build wheel: started
        Getting requirements to build wheel: finished with status 'done'
        Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml): started
        Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml): finished with status 'error'
        error: subprocess-exited-with-error
      
        × Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
        │ exit code: 1
        ╰─> [116 lines of output]
            setup.py:482: UserWarning: Unrecognized setuptools command ('dist_info --egg-base /private/var/folders/bh/bybj2bp10dvdq7ljmr_697mw0000gn/T/pip-modern-metadata-h78sgevf'), proceeding with generating Cython sources and expanding templates
              warnings.warn("Unrecognized setuptools command ('{}'), proceeding with "

…

raise NotFoundError(msg)
            numpy.distutils.system_info.NotFoundError: No BLAS/LAPACK libraries found. Note: Accelerate is no longer supported.
            To build Scipy from sources, BLAS & LAPACK libraries need to be installed.
            See site.cfg.example in the Scipy source directory and
            https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/building/index.html for details.
            [end of output]
      
        note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
      error: metadata-generation-failed

So I tried to Google the solution and learned that there are certain problems with Python on a M1 Mac. What I tried:

I tried to use a solution from another stack overflow question, but I guess I wasn’t smart enough to follow the steps, so it didn’t really help
I tried to follow instructions on the scikit official site, but again, I didn’t understand what to do with miniforge installers:

The recently introduced macos/arm64 platform (sometimes also known as
macos/aarch64) requires the open source community to upgrade the build
configuration and automation to properly support it.

At the time of writing (January 2021), the only way to get a working
installation of scikit-learn on this hardware is to install
scikit-learn and its dependencies from the conda-forge distribution,
for instance using the miniforge installers

I also tried to install the package with Miniforge. I managed to install the package in a virtual environment, but I still couldn’t import sklearn to my project:

conda list scikit-learn  # input

# packages in environment at /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/envs/test_env:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
scikit-learn              1.0.2            py39hef7049f_0    conda-forge

I also tried lots of other things I found on the Web, but nothing helped, unfortunately

I feel like I’ve done a lot of unnecessary stuff so far, but I’d still really like to solve this problem. My Python version is 3.10 (I also tried 3.9 in a virtual environment) and my PyCharm version is 2021.2.2

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you!

>Solution :

I think the easiest approach is to create a conda environment from PyCharm. Go to the python interpreter settings and create a new conda environment from there. Then, install packages with conda inside that environment, all from inside PyCharm.

Technically speaking, you’re never installing anything into PyCharm, but into a python installation, which can again either be a virtualenv or a conda env (env as in environment). If you manage to point PyCharm to the correct python executable, you should be good. On the other hand if you’re conda/pip installing into some other environment in the terminal, you’ll just be confused. Since I don’t have an M1 Mac I can’t say exactly where you went wrong, though.