This looks like the Firedrake virtualenv was not activated when you tried this. Could you try activating it first and then doing so (the ipython you want is the one in the virtualenv. For example, for me, I have: $ ipython --version 5.2.2 I seem to get one version lower and a bit, 4.2.0, but it is pointing to the correct ipython. (firedrake) fpoulin@fpoulin-Gazelle:~/Research/2015-Ben_Storer/Firedrake$ ipython --version 4.2.0 (firedrake) fpoulin@fpoulin-Gazelle:~/Research/2015-Ben_Storer/Firedrake$ which ipython /home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/bin/ipython And $ ipython kernel install -h usage: ipython-kernel-install [-h] [--user] [--name NAME] [--display-name DISPLAY_NAME] [--profile PROFILE] [--prefix PREFIX] [--sys-prefix] Then I don't seem to be able to do the kernel install, see below. (firedrake) fpoulin@fpoulin-Gazelle:~/Research/2015-Ben_Storer/Firedrake$ ipython kernel install -h Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/bin/ipython", line 11, in <module> sys.exit(start_ipython()) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/__init__.py", line 119, in start_ipython return launch_new_instance(argv=argv, **kwargs) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 595, in launch_instance app.initialize(argv) File "<decorator-gen-111>", line 2, in initialize File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 74, in catch_config_error return method(app, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 296, in initialize super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).initialize(argv) File "<decorator-gen-7>", line 2, in initialize File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 74, in catch_config_error return method(app, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/application.py", line 397, in initialize self.parse_command_line(argv) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/terminal/ipapp.py", line 291, in parse_command_line return super(TerminalIPythonApp, self).parse_command_line(argv) File "<decorator-gen-4>", line 2, in parse_command_line File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 74, in catch_config_error return method(app, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 488, in parse_command_line return self.initialize_subcommand(subc, subargv) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/IPython/core/application.py", line 207, in initialize_subcommand return super(BaseIPythonApplication, self).initialize_subcommand(subc, argv) File "<decorator-gen-3>", line 2, in initialize_subcommand File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 74, in catch_config_error return method(app, *args, **kwargs) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/traitlets/config/application.py", line 419, in initialize_subcommand subapp = import_item(subapp) File "/home/fpoulin/software/firedrake/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ipython_genutils/importstring.py", line 31, in import_item module = __import__(package, fromlist=[obj]) ImportError: No module named ipykernel.kernelapp Cheers, Francis