The new(ish) Mac M1 chips are different from Intel chips that Mac used to use. They have a lot of benefits, including better battery life and access to GPUs. However, a lot of software, especially scientific research software, is not natively installable on the M1 architecture. To circumvent this issue, Mac built Rosetta, a translator that enables software built for an Intel chip (x86) to run on the M1 chip (arm64). This blog post describes how to install two side-by-side, non-conflicting versions of conda to manage arm64 and x86 installations separately.
This post was motivated by my own struggles with the M1 chip. I almost exclusively use (mini)conda to manage software installations because it deals with dependency issues, improves reproducibility and portability of software environments, and integrates seamlessly with workflow automation software that I use frequently. However many of my favorite scienitific software packages were not available in conda for the arm64 architecture (ex. sourmash, DESeq2). At the same time, some packages have released arm64-compatible installations, and many of these have benefits such as offering access to GPUs (see here).
This blog post covers how to get the best of both worlds by installing two versions of conda, one for arm64 and one for x86. I also provide links to other solutions at the bottom, including how to have one version of conda with separate arm64 and x86 environments. This post assumes that zsh, xtools, and rosetta are already installed and configured…mostly because I had been using my M1 laptop for months before I embarked on finding a solution to my problems, and I already had these tools set up.
Running two separate installations of conda for different architectures
Step 1: Create separate terminal (or iTerm) application shortcuts for arm64 or x86
First, we’ll create two separate terminal entry points. One terminal will run the default arm64 architecture, while the other will run the x86 architecture using Rosetta. We’ll do this by creating a duplicate shortcut for terminal that will be opened using Rosetta. To do this, go to your “Applications” folder in Finder, right click Terminal (or iTerm) in the “Utilities” folder, and select Duplicate. Rename the new shortcut to “Rosetta Terminal” (or “Rosetta iTerm”), and then right click and select Get Info and check the Open using Rosetta check box.
This step was inspired by this post, which also provides a gif for the above process.
Step 2: Install miniforge3 arm64 and miniconda3 x86
Next, we’ll install miniforge3 to be used in the arm64 terminal, and minicoda3 to be used in the x86 terminal. The differences between miniforge and miniconda are described well in this stackoverflow post. Both miniforge and miniconda are minimal conda installers, but miniforge is a community-led effort (conda-forge) while miniconda is a company-led effort (anaconda). Originally, an arm64-compatible version of conda was only provided by miniforge. Now, both miniforge and miniconda provide one. However, we’ll still stick to using the miniforge installation for arm64, and the miniconda installation for x86.
We’ll start by installing miniforge for the arm64 terminal.
First, make sure you’re using arm64 processor by running:
uname -mIt should return arm64.
Then, install miniforge (check here for the lastest version):
curl -L https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/download/4.12.0-0/Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh > Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.sh
sh Miniforge3-MacOSX-arm64.shFollow the prompts to accept the licence, install, and initialize conda. The initialization script, conda init, will add the following text to your .zshrc file:
# >>> conda initialize >>>
# !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
__conda_setup="$('/Users/reitert/miniforge3/bin/conda' 'shell.zsh' 'hook' 2> /dev/null)"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
eval "$__conda_setup"
else
if [ -f "/Users/reitert/miniforge3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" ]; then
. "/Users/reitert/miniforge3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
else
export PATH="/Users/reitert/miniforge3/bin:$PATH"
fi
fi
unset __conda_setup
# <<< conda initialize <<<We’re going to extract this portion of the .zshrc file and place it in a new file. Using your favorite text editor, open your .zshrc file, cut the newly added conda initialization lines, and paste them into a new file. Save the file as ~/.start_miniforge3.sh (After we install the x86 version of miniconda in our rosetta terminal, we’ll edit the the .zshrc file to run either the miniforge initialization when the terminal is arm64, or the miniconda initialization when the terminal is x86.)
Next, we’ll install miniconda in the rosetta terminal. Switch terminal applications, and use the uname -m command again to check that you’re in the correct terminal.
uname -mIt should return x86_64.
Then run the following lines to download and install miniconda3.
curl -L https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh > Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.sh
sh Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-x86_64.shAgain, follow the prompts to accept the licence, install, and initialize conda.
The initialization script will add text that looks like this to your .zshrc:
# >>> conda initialize >>>
# !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
__conda_setup="$('/Users/reitert/miniconda3/bin/conda' 'shell.zsh' 'hook' 2> /dev/null)"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
eval "$__conda_setup"
else
if [ -f "/Users/reitert/miniconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" ]; then
. "/Users/reitert/miniconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
else
export PATH="/Users/reitert/miniconda3/bin:$PATH"
fi
fi
unset __conda_setup
# <<< conda initialize <<<Repeat the process of extracting the new initialization text, this time placing it in a file called ~/.start_miniconda3.sh.
Step 3: Edit .zshrc to automatically initialize the proper conda for each architecture
The last step is to edit the .zshrc file so that it automatically initializes the correct conda when a new terminal is started (miniforge for arm64 and miniconda for x86). We’ll use an if statement that evaluates the terminal architecture and then runs the corresponding conda initialization script. Add the text below to your .zshrc file. Depending on your configuration, your .zshrc file may have a lot of text in it already. Adding it to the bottom should (usually) work fine. I like to add a note when I manually edit my .zshrc file so that future me knows where the addition came from, but the commented lines are optional.
# <<<<<< Added by TR 20220405 <<
arch_name="$(uname -m)"
if [ "${arch_name}" = "x86_64" ]; then
echo "Running on Rosetta using miniconda3"
source ~/.start_miniconda3.sh
elif [ "${arch_name}" = "arm64" ]; then
echo "Running on ARM64 using miniforge3"
source ~/.start_miniforge3.sh
else
echo "Unknown architecture: ${arch_name}"
fi
# <<<<<<<< end <<<<<<<This solution was inspired in part by this superuser post.
Exit out of all terminals. When you re-open them, everything should be ready to run!
The miniconda installation will still need channels to be added. You can do this by running the following lines of code:
conda config --add channels defaults
conda config --add channels bioconda
conda config --add channels conda-forgeRunning two separate installations of conda without create duplicate terminal application shortcuts
If you’d rather not have two separate terminals, this youtube video by Jeff Heaton provides instructions for switching between conda installations within one terminal.
More low-key solution: only switch to x86 for a specific environment
It’s also possible to have a single conda installation, and to have single environments run as arm64 or x86. This issue gives instructions for how to use the arm64 installation of miniforge by default, but set up x86-compatible environments.
Phrases I googled in search of a solution to do these things
set up two terminals for m1 mac miniconda x86 arm64
two miniconda installations arm64 and intel
two conda installations one for rosetta and one for arm64
managing miniconda m1 rosetta
setting up m1 conda to run rosetta by default