Can't get ipython console in spyder

Question

I'm having trouble getting an ipython console in Spyder. It only offers a python interpreter under the "interpreters" menu.

I've seen this issue for a couple of others in Stackoverflow, but didn't have much joy with the proffered solutions.

I'm running linux Mint 16 and have installed both ipython (v 1.1.0) and Spyder (v 2.2.1) the easy way via the Mint Software Manager. I made sure that I also installed ipython-qtconsole and verified that I could run it from a terminal (i.e. ipython qtconsole).

I can activate an ipython console using the following commands in a Spyder python console:

import IPython
IPython.start_ipython()

though the font coloring is strange and doesn't work well on a white background (e.g. error messages in yellow and light green). It would be nice anyway to be able to start ipython the normal way from the Spyder menu.

Answer 1

You may want to install python-zmq for Python 2 and python3-zmq for Python 3.

I use Ubuntu 14.04, so:

sudo apt-get install python-zmq python3-zmq

Answer 2

I'm also using Linux Mint (18.1, at this time) and I have faced the same issue.

What solved this for me was installing Ipython3 Qt console (that, of course, should be Ipython Qt console if you're using Python 2.x).

In case you have it installed, check if you have the latest version (In Linux Mint you can do this through Synaptic, aptitude or apt-get.)