std::runtime_error when loading matplotlib.pyplot

[kesinger]

On osx 10.10.5, the examples build cleanly but when I try to run them I get:
.libc++abi.dylib: terminating with uncaught exception of type std::runtime_error: Error loading module matplotlib.pyplot!
/bAbort trap: 6

I suspect this is a system path issue as I have matplotlib installed on the system:

In [9]: matplotlib.path
Out[9]: ['/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib']

[lava]

Hi, I don't know much about mac, but
a) Does it work if you try to 'import matplotlib.pyplot' from the python interpreter?
b) If yes, does it work if you add PYTHONPATH=/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages to the environment?

[alvas]

I get the same error on Mac.

a) I can import matplotlib.pyplot from python interpreter correctly.

b) after I set PYTHONPATH environment variable, I still get the same error.

[NTT123]

I found a solution at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21784641/installation-issue-with-matplotlib-python?noredirect=1&lq=1

Create a file ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc there and add the following code: backend: TkAgg

[kgreenek]

I am running into this same issue now, although in a different environment.

I'm running on Ubuntu 18.04. Python version is 3.7. Pip dependencies (i.e. matplotlib) are installed in a virtualenv.

In order for it to be able to import matplotlib, I have to explicitly set my PYTHONPATH like below, even though I have activated the virtualenv:

export PYTHONPATH="/path/to/my/venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages"

With PYTHONPATH set, then I get the error about not being able to import matplotlib.pyplot.

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
  what():  Error loading module matplotlib.pyplot!

It's also worth saying that I am building this with bazel, so it's possible that is causing problems. But I don't think it's related to what I'm seeing.

[Friduric]

Same error on Windows 10, Visual Studio 2019, Python 310

[goldbattle]

I had this error in an ubuntu docker 16.04 and 20.04 container.
I solved it by first trying to import it as suggested:

python3
import matplotlib.pyplot 

From there I got this error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'Tkinter'

Which once I installed tk everything worked correctly.
It is a very misleading error IMO.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25905540/importerror-no-module-named-tkinter

sudo apt-get install python-tk # ubuntu 16.04
sudo apt-get install python3-tk # ubuntu 20.04

[Sidelobe]

On my system (macos on an M1 Mac, installed python using homebrew), it turned out that I got this error because matplotlib was installed only for Python 3.10, while matplotlib-cpp was using Python 3.11.

Installing matplotlib for that specific Python version helped: python3.11 -m pip install matplotlib

__
p.s. After this, I ran into some other runtime issus. I'm trying to get the examples running.
After undoing what was previously suggested here, I got most (not all!) examples working!
-> Had to remove backend: TkAgg from ~/.matplotlib/matplotlibrc

[AgathaZhang]

I am same issue now,use Anaconda on Ubuntu 22.04, Python version is 2.7,
I installed in a virtualenv. run by vscode, I write tasks.json,becuse I want to debug by vscode GUI
"-I", "/home/agatha/.conda/envs/myenv/include/python2.7",
"-L", "/home/agatha/.conda/envs/myenv/bin",
"-L", "/home/agatha/.conda/envs/myenv/lib/python2.7/site-packages",
"-lpython2.7",
And than I terminal input "conda activate myenv"
oh sad occur runtime_error("Error loading module matplotlib!");

[onnipohjavirta]

In my case, this seemed to be fixed by installing python-tk
apt install python-tk