Error when starting kernel: "The following argument was not expected: /path/to/environment/"

Issue Report Checklist

• Searched the issues page for similar reports
• Read the relevant sections of the Spyder Troubleshooting Guide and followed its advice
• Reproduced the issue after updating with conda update spyder (or pip, if not using Anaconda)
• Could not reproduce inside jupyter qtconsole (if console-related) – could not reproduce in IPython: running jupyter qtconsole gave an error (see below)
• Tried basic troubleshooting (if a bug/error)
  • Restarted Spyder
  • Reset preferences with spyder --reset
  • Reinstalled the latest version of Anaconda – Did reinstall, but using Miniconda, not Anaconda
  • Tried the other applicable steps from the Troubleshooting Guide
• Completed the Problem Description, Steps to Reproduce and Version sections below

Error from jupyter qtconsole:

(spyder-env) C:\WINDOWS\system32>jupyter qtconsole
usage: jupyter [-h] [--version] [--config-dir] [--data-dir] [--runtime-dir] [--paths] [--json] [--debug] [subcommand]

Jupyter: Interactive Computing

positional arguments:
  subcommand     the subcommand to launch

optional arguments:
  -h, --help     show this help message and exit
  --version      show the versions of core jupyter packages and exit
  --config-dir   show Jupyter config dir
  --data-dir     show Jupyter data dir
  --runtime-dir  show Jupyter runtime dir
  --paths        show all Jupyter paths. Add --json for machine-readable format.
  --json         output paths as machine-readable json
  --debug        output debug information about paths

Available subcommands: kernel kernelspec migrate run script troubleshoot

Jupyter command `jupyter-qtconsole` not found.

(spyder-env) C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Problem Description

What steps reproduce the problem?

1. Install new version of Spyder (5.3.3)
2. Agree to uninstall previous version
3. Start Spyder

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Expected: Start Spyder with an active prompt in the IPython console

Instead:

• “An error ocurred while starting the kernel”
• “The following argument was not expected: C:/ProgramData/Miniconda3/envs/spyder‑env”
• Followed by other errors

Paste Traceback/Error Below (if applicable)

The following argument was not expected: C:/ProgramData/Miniconda3/envs/spyder-env
Run with --help for more information.

Versions

• Spyder version: 5.3.3
• Python version: 3.9.13
• Qt version: Unknown
• PyQt version: Unknown
• Operating System name/version: Windows 11 Enterprise version 21H2

Dependencies

# Mandatory:
atomicwrites >=1.2.0                 :  1.4.1 (OK)
chardet >=2.0.0                      :  5.0.0 (OK)
cloudpickle >=0.5.0                  :  2.1.0 (OK)
cookiecutter >=1.6.0                 :  2.1.1 (OK)
diff_match_patch >=20181111          :  20200713 (OK)
intervaltree                         :  None (OK)
IPython >=7.31.1;<8.0.0              :  7.34.0 (OK)
jedi >=0.17.2;<0.19.0                :  0.18.1 (OK)
jellyfish >=0.7                      :  0.9.0 (OK)
jsonschema >=3.2.0                   :  4.14.0 (OK)
keyring >=17.0.0                     :  23.8.2 (OK)
nbconvert >=4.0                      :  7.0.0 (OK)
numpydoc >=0.6.0                     :  1.4.0 (OK)
paramiko >=2.4.0                     :  2.11.0 (OK)
parso >=0.7.0;<0.9.0                 :  0.8.3 (OK)
pexpect >=4.4.0                      :  4.8.0 (OK)
pickleshare >=0.4                    :  0.7.5 (OK)
psutil >=5.3                         :  5.9.1 (OK)
pygments >=2.0                       :  2.13.0 (OK)
pylint >=2.5.0;<3.0                  :  2.15.0 (OK)
pyls_spyder >=0.4.0                  :  0.4.0 (OK)
pylsp >=1.5.0;<1.6.0                 :  1.5.0 (OK)
pylsp_black >=1.2.0                  :  1.2.1 (OK)
qdarkstyle >=3.0.2;<3.1.0            :  3.0.3 (OK)
qstylizer >=0.1.10                   :  0.2.1 (OK)
qtawesome >=1.0.2                    :  1.1.1 (OK)
qtconsole >=5.3.2;<5.4.0             :  5.3.2 (OK)
qtpy >=2.1.0                         :  2.2.0 (OK)
rtree >=0.9.7                        :  1.0.0 (OK)
setuptools >=49.6.0                  :  65.3.0 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6                       :  5.1.1 (OK)
spyder_kernels >=2.3.3;<2.4.0        :  2.3.3 (OK)
textdistance >=4.2.0                 :  4.4.0 (OK)
three_merge >=0.1.1                  :  0.1.1 (OK)
watchdog                             :  2.1.9 (OK)
zmq >=22.1.0                         :  23.2.1 (OK)

# Optional:
cython >=0.21                        :  0.29.32 (OK)
matplotlib >=3.0.0                   :  3.5.3 (OK)
numpy >=1.7                          :  1.22.4 (OK)
pandas >=1.1.1                       :  1.4.3 (OK)
scipy >=0.17.0                       :  1.9.1 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3                        :  1.11 (OK)

# Spyder plugins:
spyder_terminal.terminalplugin 1.2.2 :  1.2.2 (OK)

[woudreus]

This error also appears when launching Spyder after a “install for just me” installation (although path has been modified).

Also, in Spyder, running a new kernel usually allows me to use the console. However, the warning still persists afterwards.

First initialization:

After starting new kernel:

Hopefully this provides a clue to the issue.

[dalthviz]

Actually re-reading #16562 seems like the original issue there is different to the error The following argument was not expected: /path/to/environment/. I think the issues are related but not completly the same. So actually maybe is worthy to keep both 👍