# Headless Install Issue

**URL:** <https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170>\
**Category:** Support & Discussions\
**Created:** [July 3, 2023, 9:41pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170 "2023-07-03T21:41:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jstout211](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/jstout211/32/180_2.png) [@jstout211](https://mne.discourse.group/u/jstout211)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2023, 9:41pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170/1 "2023-07-03T21:41:07Z")

</div>

It seems like the headless install of MNE may be broken. This seemed to be working not too long ago.

```python
mamba create --override-channels --channel=conda-forge --name=mne mne -y 
mamba install --name=mne -c conda-forge "vtk>=9.2=*osmesa*" "mesalib=21.2.5" -y

```

This results in a mamba error

```python
Could not solve for environment specs
Encountered problems while solving:
  - package qt-main-5.15.8-h01ceb2d_13 requires libxcb >=1.15,<1.16.0a0, but none of the providers can be installed

The environment can't be solved, aborting the operation

```

- operating system: Ubuntu 22.04 and Rocky 8 (fails on both)

I’m not sure if this is just my setup or more systemic. If someone could confirm this one way or the other, that would be helpful.

Thanks,  
Jeff Stout

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![drammock](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/drammock/32/4_2.png) [@drammock](https://mne.discourse.group/u/drammock)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170/2 "2023-07-05T14:11:34Z")

</div>

ping @richard and @bloyl who I think use headless install somewhat regularly?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![richard](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/richard/32/15_2.png) [@richard](https://mne.discourse.group/u/richard)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 2:26pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170/3 "2023-07-05T14:26:52Z")

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Nope I’ve never used it, sorry. Only regular install on a headless server.

Edit: oh. This is exactly what @jstout211 was referring to.

Anyway I’m not using MNE these days anymore, so I cannot help here unfortunately

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![richard](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/richard/32/15_2.png) [@richard](https://mne.discourse.group/u/richard)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 2:31pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170/4 "2023-07-05T14:31:12Z")

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@jstout211 why do you pin mesalib…?  
Also, have you tried installing everything with just a single call to conda or mamba instead of two?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jstout211](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/jstout211/32/180_2.png) [@jstout211](https://mne.discourse.group/u/jstout211)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2023, 3:03pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/headless-install-issue/7170/5 "2023-07-05T15:03:35Z")

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@richard - Thanks for the heads up - running as a single command does work.

`mamba create --override-channels --channel=conda-forge --name=mne mne "vtk>=9.2=*osmesa*" "mesalib=21.2.5" -y`

Regarding - why do you pin mesalib - below are the instructions from the website:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/mne/original/2X/1/1be777080f885163701e51f20538f75aa2649995.png)

We had set this up as a local/nightly testing for mne scripts. So it was working up until a week or two ago. After investigating it, the install turned out to be the issue of why the testing script failed. The single line install does work as a fix.

Thank you for the help.

–Jeff