Anaconda python install...

[PattiMichelle]

Hi All: I think I figured out that the file setup.py was an install script... I am using Anaconda3 as my python (it is properly referenced to the python command)

(base) patti@linux-lhkc:~/anaconda3> python3 setup.py install --prefix=~/.local
  File "setup.py", line 7
    <!DOCTYPE html>
    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
(base) patti@linux-lhkc:~/anaconda3> 

[PattiMichelle]

Oops!! MY BAD! I figured out that I was intended to download the zipive of the distro, then run setup.py from the download directory... Problem is jupyter doesn't seem to know where the gdl server is. But it also sort of does...

~/Desktop/ISOs/00_IDL/gdl_kernel-master> jupyter kernelspec list
Available kernels:
  gdl        /home/patti/.local/share/jupyter/kernels/GDL
  python3    /home/patti/anaconda3/share/jupyter/kernels/python3
  python2    /usr/share/jupyter/kernels/python2
~/Desktop/ISOs/00_IDL/gdl_kernel-master> 

The GDL kernel does appear in the jupyter drop-down list of kernels, but fails to start...

[I 15:06:33.576 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restarting kernel (4/5), new random ports
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main
    "__main__", mod_spec)
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/runpy.py", line 85, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/home/patti/Desktop/ISOs/00_IDL/gdl_kernel-master/gdl_kernel.py", line 209, in <module>
    IPKernelApp.launch_instance(kernel_class=GDLKernel)
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 663, in launch_instance
    app.initialize(argv)
  File "</home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/decorator.py:decorator-gen-124>", line 2, in initialize
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 87, in catch_config_error
    return method(app, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ipykernel/kernelapp.py", line 542, in initialize
    self.init_kernel()
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ipykernel/kernelapp.py", line 447, in init_kernel
    user_ns=self.user_ns,
  File "/home/patti/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/configurable.py", line 412, in instance
    inst = cls(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/patti/Desktop/ISOs/00_IDL/gdl_kernel-master/gdl_kernel.py", line 50, in __init__
    self._start_gdl()
  File "/home/patti/Desktop/ISOs/00_IDL/gdl_kernel-master/gdl_kernel.py", line 69, in _start_gdl
    self._child  = spawn(self._executable+' --use-wx ',timeout = 300, encoding='utf-8')
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'NoneType' and 'str'
[W 15:06:36.584 NotebookApp] KernelRestarter: restart failed
[W 15:06:36.585 NotebookApp] Kernel 4c31508a-afca-44c9-b335-af508ba52706 died, removing from map.
[W 15:06:42.605 NotebookApp] Replacing stale connection: 4c31508a-afca-44c9-b335-af508ba52706:f4ecabfa8b9e479c81630348f888e425

[slayoo]

Looking at the traceback and the gdl_kernel.py:

gdl_kernel/gdl_kernel.py

Line 68 in ac8edcb

self._executable = find_executable("gdl")

this means that gdl executable cannot be found by Python. One way or another, you need to ensure that find_executable("gdl") works from within Jupyter.
HTH