mamba fails if base environmen is not writable on windows

[mathause]

Troubleshooting docs

• [X] My problem is not solved in the Troubleshooting docs

Anaconda default channels

• [X] I do NOT use the Anaconda default channels (pkgs/* etc.)

How did you install Mamba?

Mambaforge or latest Miniforge

Search tried in issue tracker

looked for cache.lock

Latest version of Mamba

• [X] My problem is not solved with the latest version

Tried in Conda?

I do not have this problem with Conda, just with Mamba

Describe your issue

Creating new environment fails when installing mamba at a non-user writable location on windows. I installed Miniforge "For all users" (i.e. to C:\ProgramData\miniforge3).

(base) ~>mamba create -n test python

Looking for: ['python']

error    libmamba Could not open lockfile 'C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\cache\cache.lock'

As a workaround we can manually set the pkgs_dir in ~/.condarc

pkgs_dirs:
 - ~\.conda\pkgs

mamba info / micromamba info

mamba version : 1.5.6
     active environment : base
    active env location : C:\ProgramData\miniforge3
            shell level : 1
       user config file : C:\Users\Mathias Hauser\.condarc
 populated config files : C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\.condarc
          conda version : 23.11.0
    conda-build version : not installed
         python version : 3.10.13.final.0
                 solver : libmamba (default)
       virtual packages : __archspec=1=x86_64
                          __conda=23.11.0=0
                          __win=0=0
       base environment : C:\ProgramData\miniforge3  (read only)
      conda av data dir : C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\etc\conda
  conda av metadata url : None
           channel URLs : https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/win-64
                          https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/noarch
          package cache : C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs
                          C:\Users\Mathias Hauser\.conda\pkgs
                          C:\Users\Mathias Hauser\AppData\Local\conda\conda\pkgs
       envs directories : C:\Users\Mathias Hauser\.conda\envs
                          C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\envs
                          C:\Users\Mathias Hauser\AppData\Local\conda\conda\envs
               platform : win-64
             user-agent : conda/23.11.0 requests/2.31.0 CPython/3.10.13 Windows/10 Windows/10.0.22621 solver/libmamba conda-libmamba-solver/24.1.0 libmambapy/1.5.6
          administrator : False
             netrc file : None
           offline mode : False

Logs

>mamba create -vv -n test python

Looking for: ['python']

info     libmamba Adding package record to repo __archspec
info     libmamba Adding package record to repo __win
info     libmamba Searching index cache file for repo 'https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/win-64/repodata.json'
error    libmamba Could not open lockfile 'C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\cache\cache.lock'

(base) C:\Users\Mathias Hauser>mamba create -vvv -n test python
DEBUG conda.gateways.logging:set_log_level(232): log_level set to 10
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'

Looking for: ['python']

DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
DEBUG conda.base.context:root_writable(656): [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'C:\\ProgramData\\miniforge3\\conda-meta\\history'
info     libmamba Adding package record to repo __archspec
info     libmamba Adding package record to repo __win
info     libmamba Searching index cache file for repo 'https://conda.anaconda.org/conda-forge/win-64/repodata.json'
error    libmamba Could not open lockfile 'C:\ProgramData\miniforge3\pkgs\cache\cache.lock'

environment.yml

No response

~/.condarc

No response

[Qazalbash]

@mathause have you solved this problem?

[mathause]

I haven't checked since reporting, but I guess the issue persists. There is one workaround given above. I opted for not installing 'for all users' instead.