How to fix "module 'tensorflow' has no attribute 'estimator' " error

Question

I'm using conda (env created via YAML) + pip to set up a Tensorflow v1.13.1 environment on my Linux Mint box. After setup, whenever I try to import tf.estimator I receive the AttributeError described in the title:

AttributeError: module 'tensorflow' has no attribute 'estimator'

• I do not have any version of TF installed outside of a conda environment (or on pip).
• I do have another conda environment set up the same way but with Tensorflow 2.0 alpha, which can import tf.estimator just fine.
• I have tried removing the environment and building it again
• I have tried rebooting :(
• For some reason I cannot update conda to 4.6:

$ conda update -n base -c defaults conda

# >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ERROR REPORT <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/exceptions.py", line 819, in __call__
        return func(*args, **kwargs)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/cli/main.py", line 78, in _main
        exit_code = do_call(args, p)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/cli/conda_argparse.py", line 77, in do_call
        exit_code = getattr(module, func_name)(args, parser)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/cli/main_update.py", line 14, in execute
        install(args, parser, 'update')
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/cli/install.py", line 253, in install
        handle_txn(unlink_link_transaction, prefix, args, newenv)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/cli/install.py", line 282, in handle_txn
        unlink_link_transaction.execute()
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/core/link.py", line 223, in execute
        self.verify()
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/common/io.py", line 46, in decorated
        return f(*args, **kwds)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/core/link.py", line 200, in verify
        self.prepare()
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/core/link.py", line 192, in prepare
        stp.remove_specs, stp.update_specs)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/core/link.py", line 282, in _prepare
        mkdir_p(transaction_context['temp_dir'])
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/site-packages/conda/gateways/disk/__init__.py", line 60, in mkdir_p
        makedirs(path)
      File "/usr/share/anaconda3/lib/python3.7/os.py", line 221, in makedirs
        mkdir(name, mode)
    PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/usr/share/anaconda3/.condatmp'

The yml file looks like this:

dependencies:
- python
- numpy
- tensorflow
- cudatoolkit==9.0
...

From inside the environment in question:

• $ conda list tensorflow

    # packages in environment at /home/cjs/.conda/envs/my-env:
    # 
    # Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
    tensorflow                1.13.1          mkl_py37h54b294f_0
    tensorflow-base           1.13.1          mkl_py37h7ce6ba3_0
    tensorflow-estimator      1.13.0                     py_0

• $ pip list | grep tensorflow

    tensorflow                  1.13.1
    tensorflow-estimator        1.13.0

• $ which pip

    /home/cjs/.conda/envs/my-env/bin/pip

• $ conda --version

    conda 4.5.11

• $ pip --version

    pip 19.0.3 from /home/cjs/.local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pip (python 3.7)

Here is a minimal example of the issue. As you can see, this only occurs where tf.estimator is called, all other Tensorflow attributes act as expected:

Python 3.7.3 (default, Mar 27 2019, 22:11:17)
[GCC 7.3.0] :: Anaconda, Inc. on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tensorflow as tf
>>> tf.__version__
'1.13.1'
>>> tf.estimator
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: module 'tensorflow' has no attribute 'estimator'
>>> tf.estimator.Estimator()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: module 'tensorflow' has no attribute 'estimator'
>>> from tensorflow import estimator
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name 'estimator' from 'tensorflow' (/home/cjs/.conda/envs/my-env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/tensorflow/__init__.py)
>>> tf.Variable
<class 'tensorflow.python.ops.variables.VariableV1'>
>>> tf.keras
<module 'tensorflow._api.v1.keras' from '/home/cjs/.conda/envs/my-env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/tensorflow/_api/v1/keras/__init__.py'>
>>> tf.constant
<function constant_v1 at 0x7fb25ea24950>

---

UPDATE

As per https://docs.nvidia.com/deploy/cuda-compatibility/index.html#binary-compatibility__table-toolkit-driver I was able to figure out that my nvidia drivers and cudatoolkit versions were out of sync (390.46 vs 9.0).

I have now updated my NVIDIA drivers to v418, and was able to update my conda version to 4.16.14. I updated the environment.yml shown above to cudatoolkit==10.1, but I can't seem to figure out how to actually install that.

My numba -s output includes this section, which makes me think the whole issue from the beginning was that cuda isn't finding my GPU (or can't connect to it?).

__CUDA Information__
Error: CUDA device intialisation problem. Message:Error at driver init:
[100] Call to cuInit results in CUDA_ERROR_NO_DEVICE:
Error class: <class 'numba.cuda.cudadrv.error.CudaSupportError'>

---

(MINOR) UPDATE

Was able to determine the cause of the numba issue was that I did not reboot since updating the GPU drivers (duh).

Not completely out of the woods on that, though. New issue is the following:

__CUDA Information__
Found 1 CUDA devices
id 0          b'Quadro K620'                              [SUPPORTED]
                      compute capability: 5.0
                           pci device id: 0
                              pci bus id: 1
Summary:
        1/1 devices are supported
CUDA driver version                 : 10010
CUDA libraries:
Finding cublas
        ERROR: can't locate lib
Finding cusparse
        ERROR: can't locate lib
Finding cufft
        ERROR: can't locate lib
Finding curand
        ERROR: can't locate lib
Finding nvvm
        ERROR: can't locate lib
        finding libdevice for compute_20...     ERROR: can't open libdevice for compute_20
        finding libdevice for compute_30...     ERROR: can't open libdevice for compute_30
        finding libdevice for compute_35...     ERROR: can't open libdevice for compute_35
        finding libdevice for compute_50...     ERROR: can't open libdevice for compute_50

Answer 1

Finally found the issue. I had some local (non-Conda) Tensorflow packages still installed, which were higher priority in the python environment, I guess.

This link solved my issue: https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorboard/issues/2067

• Uninstall tensorflow, tensorboard
• Uninstall tb-nightly(if it is installed)
• Use "pip freeze | grep tensorflow" to check if tensorflow-estimator package has been installed. If so, uninstall it.
• Go to site-packages and remove all tensorflow folders related to tensorflow, tensorboard, tensorflow-estimator etc
• Reinstall the latest versions of tensorflow and tensorboard

The key for my issue was the sitepackages, which can be found at BOTH

• ~/.conda/envs/<my-env>/lib/python3.<xx>/site-packages
• ~/.local/lib/python3.<xx>/site-packages

Where <my-env> is your conda environment and <xx> is your python version.

Just rm -r <path to package> each tensorflow package in your ~/.local/ library and reinstall the conda environment.

Answer 2

Just uninstall tensorflow, tensorboard, and tensorflow-estimator and reinstall tensorflow. Worked for me with version 1.14.0.

pip uninstall tensorflow tensorboard tensorflow-estimator
...
pip install tensorflow==1.14.0