Setting up Jupyter with Python 3 on Ubuntu

2017-06-23 Jupyter Linux Andrew B. Collier

A short note on how to set up Jupyter Notebooks with Python 3 on Ubuntu. The instructions are specific to Xenial Xerus (16.04) but are likely to be helpful elsewhere too.

Python Prerequisites

Make sure that you have python3 and pip3 installed.

$ sudo apt install python3
$ sudo apt install python3-pip

Also install the IPython shell.

$ sudo apt install ipython3

Install Jupyter

It’s then a simple matter to install Jupyter.

$ pip3 install jupyter

That installed the executables into ~/.local/bin/, which then needs to be added to the execution path.

$ export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin/

It’s a good idea to add that to one of your startup scripts, probably .bashrc.

Execution Time

At this stage you should be ready to roll.

$ jupyter notebook

That will open up a new Jupyter browser tab. From there you’ll be able to browse to find existing notebooks or create a new notebook by pressing the New dropdown and selecting the notebook type.

Python 2 Kernel

The above instructions will give you a Python 3 kernel in Jupyter. What if you want to have Python 2 as another option? No problem!

$ python2 -m pip install ipykernel
$ python2 -m ipykernel install --user