Tensorflow quantum requires Manylinux2010. Is there a workaround to get Tensorflow quantum working on a Windows OS?

Question

I have been having issue with installing tensorflow quantum on a windows operating system and am currently having it run on a Linux subsystem. Are there any workarounds to get it running on Windows? Protobuf version cannot simultaneously be version 3.8 and 3.12 to satisfy the installation requirements.

Contradictory protobuff versions

Tensorflow quantum installation guide

Answer 1

I'm the engineer who looks after TFQ. From the image you linked I see a couple of things going on:

1. You are using annaconda. TFQ only supports the official pip builds of TF. Long story short they build TF with different compiler flags for the C++ code that break compatability with TFQ: https://github.com/tensorflow/quantum/issues/180

2. It looks like you are downloading the old version of TFQ 0.3.1 which is downgrading your existing cirq from 0.9.1 to 0.8.0. 0.9.1 requires proto 3.12 and 0.8.0 requires 3.8 and pip didn't back out the proto install for you in that downgrade.

3. The latest version of TFQ is 0.4.0 and we do not support windows on that release our windows builds went a little flaky in the upgrade and are trying our best to get them back :).

I personally don't have a ton of experience using windows or linux subsystem, but maybe fixing some of those points would help. I would also encourage you to try and get the latest version of TFQ 0.4.0 running (it's got more features hehe). A quick workaround would be to use colab. A slightly longer workaround might be to setup a linux VM or a linux cloud instance.

Michael

Answer 2

Thanks for the information. I was abiding to the TensorFlow Quantum Installation Guide. I understand that using pip with Anaconda is not a direct option.

What I can confirm is that Tensorflow Quantum works on Ubuntu subsystem 20.04 LTS with Anaconda and Jupyter notebooks(for those who might be interested).

Regarding Windows compatible Tensorflow Quantum versions, is there an information source on the compatible versions?

Thanks a lot!

Best regards, Dean