Changes for page 02. Installing PyNN - Linux
Last modified by adavison on 2022/10/04 13:53
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... ... @@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ 49 49 **Slide** listing learning objectives 50 50 ))) 51 51 52 -In this tutorial, I will guide you through setting up PyNN, together with the NEST, NEURON and Brian 52 +In this tutorial, I will guide you through setting up PyNN, together with the NEST, NEURON and Brian2 simulators, in a Linux environment. Note that we have a dedicated version of this tutorial for other environments, such as Mac OS, Windows and EBRAINS Jupyter Lab. 53 53 54 54 (% class="box successmessage" %) 55 55 ((( ... ... @@ -56,14 +56,8 @@ 56 56 **Slide** listing prerequisites 57 57 ))) 58 58 59 -I shall be demonstrating the installation on a computer with Ubuntu 20.04 OS installed. The steps are likely to remain very similar for other versions of Ubuntu OS, and also not expected to vary significantly for other Linux distributions. In the latter case, you will find on the Internet about how to carry out the equivalent of the tasks demonstrated here using Ubuntu OS. Also, the tutorial will focus only on Python 3, as Python 2 has now been deprecated. It is recommended to use Python version 3.6 or higher. I would be using Python 3. 8.10in this tutorial, as it is the default version provided with Ubuntu 20.04.59 +I shall be demonstrating the installation on a computer with Ubuntu 20.04 OS installed. The steps are likely to remain very similar for other versions of Ubuntu OS, and also not expected to vary significantly for other Linux distributions. In the latter case, you will find on the Internet about how to carry out the equivalent of the tasks demonstrated here using Ubuntu OS. Also, the tutorial will focus only on Python 3, as Python 2 has now been deprecated. It is recommended to use Python version 3.6 or higher. I would be using Python 3.9.7 in this tutorial. 60 60 61 -(% class="box errormessage" %) 62 -((( 63 -**Note:** 64 -Having multiple versions of Python on your system can produce issues while installing NEST. The method shown below will install NEST for the default version of Python provided by your Ubuntu OS. E.g. for Ubuntu 18.04 this might be Python 3.6.9 and for Ubuntu 20.04 it will likely be 3.8.10. If you wish to associate the NEST installation with a different Python version installed on your system, please refer the NEST installation instructions to do so on their website. 65 -))) 66 - 67 67 (% class="box infomessage" %) 68 68 ((( 69 69 **Screencast** - terminal ... ... @@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ 81 81 cd pynn_project 82 82 ))) 83 83 84 -Next we shall create a virtual environment within this directory. Python 3 provides support for creating virtual environments. Since Python 3.6, the recommended method of creating a new virtual environment is as follows: 78 +Next we shall create a virtual environment within this directory. Python 3 provides intrinsic support for creating virtual environments. Since Python 3.6, the recommended method of creating a new virtual environment is as follows: 85 85 86 86 (% class="box errormessage" %) 87 87 ((( ... ... @@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ 119 119 120 120 Now that we have our project's virtual environment setup, we are now ready to install PyNN and other simulators. In general, it is advisable to install the various simulators (especially NEURON and NEST) prior to installing PyNN, because PyNN will then auto compile NEURON's NMODL fles and NEST's extensions during installation. Alternatively, this would need to be done manually as described on the PyNN website. In this tutorial, we will adopt the easier approach and begin by installing the simulators. For the purposes of this tutorial, we shall demonstrate the installation of Brian2, NEURON and NEST simulators. 121 121 122 -We start here with the installation of Brian 116 +We start here with the installation of Brian2. Brian2 can be installed simply using the pip command. 123 123 124 124 (% class="box infomessage" %) 125 125 ((( ... ... @@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ 127 127 \\(% style="color:#000000" %)pip install brian2 128 128 ))) 129 129 130 -This will install Brian 124 +This will install Brian2, along with all its dependencies such as 'cython', 'numpy', etc. We can now go back into our virtual environment's 'site-packages' directory to see how it is now populated with all these packages. 131 131 132 132 (% class="box infomessage" %) 133 133 ((( ... ... @@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ 135 135 \\(% style="color:#000000" %)<< show directory contents lib/python3.9/site-packages >> 136 136 ))) 137 137 138 -To confirm that we have properly installed Brian 132 +To confirm that we have properly installed Brian2 on our computer, we can test as follows: 139 139 140 140 (% class="box infomessage" %) 141 141 ((( ... ... @@ -145,12 +145,13 @@ 145 145 \\exit() 146 146 ))) 147 147 148 -If there are no error messages here, and the import is successful, then we have completed installing Brian 142 +If there are no error messages here, and the import is successful, then we have completed installing Brian2. 149 149 150 -We shall now move on to install the NEST simulator. Unlike Brian 2, NEST is not a Python package and therefore it cannot be installed via the 'pip' command. 151 151 152 - Atthetime of creatingthisutorial,thelastest version ofNESTisv3.1. This is currently supported by PyNN v0.10,and it islikelythat otherversionsofNESTcouldpotentiallybe incompatiblewiththis version ofPyNN. The installation isdoneby firstadding thePPA repositoryforNESTandpdatingapt,followedbytheinstallationofNESTitself.145 +We shall now move on to install the NEST simulator. Unlike Brian2, NEST is not a Python package and therefore its installation is a bit more involved. We shall install the NEST module along with PyNEST, which is a Python interface for controlling the NEST kernel. 153 153 147 +We first install the NEST module. Version 2.20 is currently supported by PyNN, and it is likely that other versions of NEST might have issues when used with the current version of PyNN. The installation is done by first adding the PPA repository for NEST and updating apt, followed by the installation of NEST itself. 148 + 154 154 (% class="box infomessage" %) 155 155 ((( 156 156 **Screencast** - terminal ... ... @@ -159,26 +159,10 @@ 159 159 \\sudo apt-get install nest 160 160 ))) 161 161 162 - This installsthe NEST modulealongwithPyNEST, which isa Pythoninterface for controllingthe NEST kernel. This allows ustouseNESTvia Python. Toconfirmthat we have properly installed Brian 2on our computer, wecantestasfollows:157 +At this point, we have installed the NEST module, but it is still not usable via Python. To do so, we next install PyNEST. 163 163 164 -(% class="box infomessage" %) 165 -((( 166 -**Screencast - terminal** 167 - (% style="color:#000000" %)python3 168 168 169 169 170 -(% style="color:#000000" %)import brian2 171 - 172 - 173 -(% style="color:#000000" %)exit() 174 -))) 175 - 176 -Screencast - terminal 177 - 178 -<< test NEST >> 179 - 180 -The installation for NEURON is a bit more involved. 181 - 182 182 (% class="box successmessage" %) 183 183 ((( 184 184 **Slide** recap of learning objectives ... ... @@ -202,5 +202,3 @@ 202 202 203 203 (% class="wikigeneratedid" %) 204 204 [[https:~~/~~/realpython.com/python-virtual-environments-a-primer/>>https://realpython.com/python-virtual-environments-a-primer/]] 205 -[[https:~~/~~/briansimulator.org/install/>>https://briansimulator.org/install/]] 206 -[[https:~~/~~/nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.1/installation/index.html>>https://nest-simulator.readthedocs.io/en/v3.1/installation/index.html]]