# Weird IJulia issue \[Help! I really \]

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [February 8, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877 "2021-02-08T22:35:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jojo\_Dad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jojo_dad/32/8620_2.png) [@Jojo\_Dad](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jojo_Dad)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/1 "2021-02-08T22:35:14Z")

</div>

I have a weird IJulia issue. I have just installed the newest version of Julia (I tried both 1.5.3 and 1.6.0-rc1, they have the same issue). I am stuck in this loop:

```julia
/Users/reiner_hase/.julia/conda/3/bin/jupyter notebook
[I 23:28:45.638 NotebookApp] JupyterLab extension loaded from /Users/reiner_hase/.julia/conda/3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/jupyterlab
[I 23:28:45.638 NotebookApp] JupyterLab application directory is /Users/reiner_hase/.julia/conda/3/share/jupyter/lab
[I 23:28:45.640 NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /Users/reiner_hase
[I 23:28:45.640 NotebookApp] Jupyter Notebook 6.2.0 is running at:
[I 23:28:45.640 NotebookApp] http://localhost:8888/?token=28252f0048255506ced95e7bab00202a1d57a5fa4c31a1c6
[I 23:28:45.640 NotebookApp] or http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=28252f0048255506ced95e7bab00202a1d57a5fa4c31a1c6
[I 23:28:45.640 NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).
[C 23:28:45.644 NotebookApp] 
    
    To access the notebook, open this file in a browser:
        file:///Users/reiner_hase/Library/Jupyter/runtime/nbserver-4108-open.html
    Or copy and paste one of these URLs:
        http://localhost:8888/?token=28252f0048255506ced95e7bab00202a1d57a5fa4c31a1c6
     or http://127.0.0.1:8888/?token=28252f0048255506ced95e7bab00202a1d57a5fa4c31a1c6
/Users/reiner_hase/.julia/conda/3/lib/python3.8/site-packages/jupyter_client/kernelspec.py:252: UserWarning: Invalid kernelspec directory name (Kernel names can only contain ASCII letters and numbers and these separators: - . _ (hyphen, period, and underscore).): /Users/reiner_hase/Library/Jupyter/kernels/julia-(4-threads)-1.6
  d = self.find_kernel_specs()
[I 23:28:57.322 NotebookApp] Creating new notebook in 
[I 23:28:58.005 NotebookApp] Kernel started: 064a14e2-157d-4f23-9feb-2b39e755d6c4, name: julia-1.6
PROFILE = Dict{String, Any}("key" => "7985477b-379484f93b3ded140681eca4", "transport" => "tcp", "signature_scheme" => "hmac-sha256", "shell_port" => 52871, "hb_port" => 52874, "control_port" => 52875, "ip" => "127.0.0.1", "stdin_port" => 52873, "iopub_port" => 52872, "kernel_name" => "julia-1.6")
[I 23:29:04.007 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (1/5), keep random ports
PROFILE = Dict{String, Any}("key" => "7985477b-379484f93b3ded140681eca4", "transport" => "tcp", "signature_scheme" => "hmac-sha256", "shell_port" => 52871, "hb_port" => 52874, "control_port" => 52875, "ip" => "127.0.0.1", "stdin_port" => 52873, "iopub_port" => 52872, "kernel_name" => "julia-1.6")
[I 23:29:10.017 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (1/5), keep random ports
PROFILE = Dict{String, Any}("key" => "7985477b-379484f93b3ded140681eca4", "transport" => "tcp", "signature_scheme" => "hmac-sha256", "shell_port" => 52871, "hb_port" => 52874, "control_port" => 52875, "ip" => "127.0.0.1", "stdin_port" => 52873, "iopub_port" => 52872, "kernel_name" => "julia-1.6")
[I 23:29:16.028 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (1/5), keep random ports
PROFILE = Dict{String, Any}("key" => "7985477b-379484f93b3ded140681eca4", "transport" => "tcp", "signature_scheme" => "hmac-sha256", "shell_port" => 52871, "hb_port" => 52874, "control_port" => 52875, "ip" => "127.0.0.1", "stdin_port" => 52873, "iopub_port" => 52872, "kernel_name" => "julia-1.6")
[I 23:29:22.035 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (1/5), keep random ports
PROFILE = Dict{String, Any}("key" => "7985477b-379484f93b3ded140681eca4", "transport" => "tcp", "signature_scheme" => "hmac-sha256", "shell_port" => 52871, "hb_port" => 52874, "control_port" => 52875, "ip" => "127.0.0.1", "stdin_port" => 52873, "iopub_port" => 52872, "kernel_name" => "julia-1.6")
[I 23:29:28.043 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (1/5), keep random ports

```

I have tried re-installing everything. No use. I tried another user and installed it there - I get an internal server error 500 instead.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jojo\_Dad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jojo_dad/32/8620_2.png) [@Jojo\_Dad](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jojo_Dad)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 10:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/2 "2021-02-08T22:41:37Z")

</div>

I should add: Despite that IJulia was installed with Julia’s Miniconda, only Python3 works fine - not Julia…

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/3 "2021-02-08T23:11:07Z")

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> [@Jojo\_Dad](#):
>
> `Invalid kernelspec directory name (Kernel names can only contain ASCII letters and numbers and these separators: - . _ (hyphen, period, and underscore).): /Users/reiner_hase/Library/Jupyter/kernels/julia-(4-threads)-1.6`

This seems pretty clear. You created a custom kernel spec with a name Jupyter doesn’t like. Rename it so that it doesn’t have parens.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jojo\_Dad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jojo_dad/32/8620_2.png) [@Jojo\_Dad](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jojo_Dad)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/4 "2021-02-09T12:56:26Z")

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That kernel was an example from

```julia
https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl/blob/master/docs/src/manual/installation.md

```

but it had a similar problem with julia-1.6-rc1 and even julia-1.6. I only managed to solve the problem by going back to 1.5.3 …

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stevengj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/stevengj/32/71_2.png) [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2021, 1:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/5 "2021-02-09T13:27:43Z")

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> [@Jojo\_Dad](#):
>
> but it had a similar problem with julia-1.6-rc1 and even julia-1.6.

The problem on 1.6 for MacOS is probably this one, which is totally different: [IJulia kernel doesn't work for Julia 1.6 on macOS · Issue #968 · JuliaLang/IJulia.jl · GitHub](https://github.com/JuliaLang/IJulia.jl/issues/968)

The details of error messages matter; you have to read through the error output carefully.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jojo\_Dad](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jojo_dad/32/8620_2.png) [@Jojo\_Dad](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jojo_Dad)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2021, 10:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/weird-ijulia-issue-help-i-really/54877/6 "2021-02-21T10:57:55Z")

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Thanks! You are totally right!