#14063·conda

"conda install" failing due to an unrelated and already-installed package showing as being unavailable?

Author: stevenbedrickCreated Jul 23, 2024Updated Sep 18, 2026
Labelstype::bugsource::communitypending::discussionstale::recovered

Checklist

  • I added a descriptive title
  • I searched open reports and couldn't find a duplicate

What happened?

Hello! After using conda to install CUDA into my environment (via conda install -c nvidia cuda), now all of a sudden installing additional packages is failing with the following error message:

(new_cluster_cuda_env) % conda install protobuf
Channels:
 - defaults
 - conda-forge
 - nvidia
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done
Solving environment: failed

InvalidSpec: The package "nvidia/linux-64::cuda==12.5.1=0" is not available for the specified platform

There are at least two things weird about this message:

  1. As best as I can tell, the protobuf package is unrelated to anything CUDA; notably, I get the same message if I try and install other packages (e.g. rust) so I suspect that it's something more generally borked with my conda environment somehow.
  2. nvidia::cuda 12.5.1 very much does exist for the linux-64 platform and is in fact already successfully installed in this environment and working like a champ, so it's not clear why the package resolver would think that it's not available.

I am admittedly a newbie to Anaconda (though not to Python or Linux more generally) so it's possible that I'm missing something obvious and basic; if that's the case, I apologize! Any pointers or help would be very much appreciated, thanks!

Conda Info

bash
active environment : /home/exacloud/gscratch/BedrickLab/bedricks/new_cluster_cuda_env
    active env location : /home/exacloud/gscratch/BedrickLab/bedricks/new_cluster_cuda_env
            shell level : 1
       user config file : /home/users/bedricks/.condarc
 populated config files : /home/users/bedricks/.condarc
          conda version : 24.4.0
    conda-build version : not installed
         python version : 3.12.3.final.0
                 solver : libmamba (default)
       virtual packages : __archspec=1=sapphirerapids
                          __conda=24.4.0=0
                          __cuda=12.5=0
                          __glibc=2.34=0
                          __linux=5.14.0=0
                          __unix=0=0
       base environment : /home/users/bedricks/miniconda3  (writable)
      conda av data dir : /home/users/bedricks/miniconda3/etc/conda
  conda av metadata url : None
           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/exacloud/gscratch/BedrickLab/bedricks/conda_pkg
       envs directories : /home/users/bedricks/miniconda3/envs
                          /home/users/bedricks/.conda/envs
               platform : linux-64
             user-agent : conda/24.4.0 requests/2.31.0 CPython/3.12.3 Linux/5.14.0-362.24.1.el9_3.x86_64 rhel/9.3 glibc/2.34 solver/libmamba conda-libmamba-solver/24.1.0 libmambapy/1.5.8 aau/0.4.4 c/. s/. e/.
                UID:GID : 3394:3024
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

Conda Config

bash
==> /home/users/bedricks/.condarc <==
auto_activate_base: False
env_prompt: ({name})
pkgs_dirs:
  - /home/exacloud/gscratch/BedrickLab/bedricks/conda_pkg

Conda list

bash
# packages in environment at /home/exacloud/gscratch/BedrickLab/bedricks/new_cluster_cuda_env:
#
# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
_libgcc_mutex             0.1                 conda_forge    conda-forge
_openmp_mutex             4.5                       2_gnu    conda-forge
_sysroot_linux-64_curr_repodata_hack 3                   h69a702a_16    conda-forge
binutils                  2.40                 h4852527_7    conda-forge
binutils_impl_linux-64    2.40                 ha1999f0_7    conda-forge
binutils_linux-64         2.40                 hb3c18ed_0    conda-forge
bzip2                     1.0.8                h5eee18b_6    defaults
c-ares                    1.19.1               h5eee18b_0    defaults
c-compiler                1.7.0                hd590300_1    conda-forge
ca-certificates           2024.7.4             hbcca054_0    conda-forge
cachetools                5.4.0                    pypi_0    pypi
ccache                    3.7.9                hfe4627d_0    defaults
cmake                     3.26.4               h96355d8_0    defaults
compilers                 1.7.0                ha770c72_1    conda-forge
cuda                      12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-cccl                 12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-cccl_linux-64        12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-command-line-tools   12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-compiler             12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-crt-dev_linux-64     12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-crt-tools            12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart               12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart-dev           12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart-dev_linux-64  12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart-static        12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart-static_linux-64 12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cudart_linux-64      12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cuobjdump            12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-cupti                12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cupti-dev            12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-cuxxfilt             12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-driver-dev           12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-driver-dev_linux-64  12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-gdb                  12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-libraries            12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-libraries-dev        12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-nsight               12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvcc                 12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvcc-dev_linux-64    12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvcc-impl            12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvcc-tools           12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvcc_linux-64        12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvdisasm             12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvml-dev             12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvprof               12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvprune              12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvrtc                12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvrtc-dev            12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvtx                 12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvvm-dev_linux-64    12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvvm-impl            12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvvm-tools           12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-nvvp                 12.5.82                       0    nvidia
cuda-opencl               12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-opencl-dev           12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-profiler-api         12.5.39                       0    nvidia
cuda-runtime              12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-sanitizer-api        12.5.81                       0    nvidia
cuda-toolkit              12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-tools                12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cuda-version              12.5                          3    nvidia
cuda-visual-tools         12.5.1                        0    nvidia
cxx-compiler              1.7.0                h00ab1b0_1    conda-forge
dbus                      1.13.18              hb2f20db_0    defaults
expat                     2.6.2                h6a678d5_0    defaults
fontconfig                2.14.1               h4c34cd2_2    defaults
fortran-compiler          1.7.0                heb67821_1    conda-forge
freetype                  2.12.1               h4a9f257_0    defaults
gcc                       12.4.0               h236703b_0    conda-forge
gcc_impl_linux-64         12.4.0               hb2e57f8_0    conda-forge
gcc_linux-64              12.4.0               h6b7512a_0    conda-forge
gds-tools                 1.10.1.7                      0    nvidia
gfortran                  12.4.0               h236703b_0    conda-forge
gfortran_impl_linux-64    12.4.0               hc568b83_0    conda-forge
gfortran_linux-64         12.4.0               hd748a6a_0    conda-forge
glib                      2.78.4               h6a678d5_0    defaults
glib-tools                2.78.4               h6a678d5_0    defaults
gmp                       6.2.1                h295c915_3    defaults
gxx                       12.4.0               h236703b_0    conda-forge
gxx_impl_linux-64         12.4.0               h557a472_0    conda-forge
gxx_linux-64              12.4.0               h8489865_0    conda-forge
icu                       73.1                 h6a678d5_0    defaults
kernel-headers_linux-64   3.10.0              h4a8ded7_16    conda-forge
krb5                      1.20.1               h143b758_1    defaults
ld_impl_linux-64          2.40                 hf3520f5_7    conda-forge
libcublas                 12.5.3.2                      0    nvidia
libcublas-dev             12.5.3.2                      0    nvidia
libcufft                  11.2.3.61                     0    nvidia
libcufft-dev              11.2.3.61                     0    nvidia
libcufile                 1.10.1.7                      0    nvidia
libcufile-dev             1.10.1.7                      0    nvidia
libcurand                 10.3.6.82                     0    nvidia
libcurand-dev             10.3.6.82                     0    nvidia
libcurl                   8.7.1                h251f7ec_0    defaults
libcusolver               11.6.3.83                     0    nvidia
libcusolver-dev           11.6.3.83                     0    nvidia
libcusparse               12.5.1.3                      0    nvidia
libcusparse-dev           12.5.1.3                      0    nvidia
libedit                   3.1.20230828         h5eee18b_0    defaults
libev                     4.33                 h7f8727e_1    defaults
libffi                    3.4.4                h6a678d5_1    defaults
libgcc-devel_linux-64     12.4.0             ha4f9413_100    conda-forge
libgcc-ng                 14.1.0               h77fa898_0    conda-forge
libgfortran5              14.1.0               hc5f4f2c_0    conda-forge
libglib                   2.78.4               hdc74915_0    defaults
libgomp                   14.1.0               h77fa898_0    conda-forge
libiconv                  1.16                 h5eee18b_3    defaults
libnghttp2                1.57.0               h2d74bed_0    defaults
libnpp                    12.3.0.159                    0    nvidia
libnpp-dev                12.3.0.159                    0    nvidia
libnvfatbin               12.5.82                       0    nvidia
libnvfatbin-dev           12.5.82                       0    nvidia
libnvjitlink              12.5.82                       0    nvidia
libnvjitlink-dev          12.5.82                       0    nvidia
libnvjpeg                 12.3.2.81                     0    nvidia
libnvjpeg-dev             12.3.2.81                     0    nvidia
libpng                    1.6.39               h5eee18b_0    defaults
libsanitizer              12.4.0               h46f95d5_0    conda-forge
libssh2                   1.11.0               h251f7ec_0    defaults
libstdcxx-devel_linux-64  12.4.0             ha4f9413_100    conda-forge
libstdcxx-ng              14.1.0               hc0a3c3a_0    conda-forge
libuuid                   1.41.5               h5eee18b_0    defaults
libuv                     1.48.0               h5eee18b_0    defaults
libxcb                    1.15                 h7f8727e_0    defaults
libxkbcommon              1.0.1                h5eee18b_1    defaults
libxml2                   2.10.4               hfdd30dd_2    defaults
lz4-c                     1.9.4                h6a678d5_1    defaults
ncurses                   6.4                  h6a678d5_0    defaults
nsight-compute            2024.2.1.2                    2    nvidia
nspr                      4.35                 h6a678d5_0    defaults
nss                       3.89.1               h6a678d5_0    defaults
nvidia-ml-py              12.535.161               pypi_0    pypi
nvitop                    1.3.2                    pypi_0    pypi
openssl                   3.3.1                h4bc722e_2    conda-forge
pcre2                     10.42                hebb0a14_1    defaults
pip                       24.1.2                   pypi_0    pypi
psutil                    6.0.0                    pypi_0    pypi
python                    3.12.4               h5148396_1    defaults
readline                  8.2                  h5eee18b_0    defaults
rhash                     1.4.3                hdbd6064_0    defaults
setuptools                69.5.1          py312h06a4308_0    defaults
sqlite                    3.45.3               h5eee18b_0    defaults
sysroot_linux-64          2.17                h4a8ded7_16    conda-forge
termcolor                 2.4.0                    pypi_0    pypi
tk                        8.6.14               h39e8969_0    defaults
tzdata                    2024a                h04d1e81_0    defaults
wheel                     0.43.0          py312h06a4308_0    defaults
xz                        5.4.6                h5eee18b_1    defaults
zlib                      1.2.13               h5eee18b_1    defaults
zstd                      1.5.5                hc292b87_2    defaults

Additional Context

No response