Hi, I just wanted to point out that I’m having the same issues and I can’t install the latest version of QIIME 2 (2026.1), even when using the workaround of installing an older version of conda. In my case, I’m working on a WSL system, where I’ve successfully used many previous versions of QIIME 2 without problems.
Hi @ja.morillo,
Thanks for reaching out 
I've split this reply into a new topic to help us keep responses better organized. For your specific case, can you please provide the following:
- The output of
ldd --versionon your machine when using WSL. - The entire output from your command line when attempting to install QIIME 2 2026.1.
You also mentioned that you attempted to downgrade conda but received the same error after making that change. What was your initial version of conda, and what was the version you downgraded to without seeing any changes?
1 Like
Thankk you!! 
it seems something related with sortmerna ==2.0:
I am working in this computer with q 2025.7 and it works; conda, I re-installed the latest version: jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda -V
conda 26.1.0
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ ldd --version
ldd (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3.13) 2.35
Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda update conda
Channels:
- defaults
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done
Solving environment: done
All requested packages already installed.
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda env create
--name qiime2-amplicon-2026.1
--file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qiime2/distributions/refs/heads/dev/2026.1/amplicon/released/qiime2-amplicon-ubuntu-latest-conda.yml
Channels:
- conda-forge
- bioconda
- released
- defaults
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): - conda deactivate
conda activate qiime2-amplicon-2026.1
qiime info
done
Solving environment: failed
LibMambaUnsatisfiableError: Encountered problems while solving:
- package deblur-1.1.1-pyhdfd78af_0 requires sortmerna 2.0, but none of the providers can be installed
Could not solve for environment specs
The following package could not be installed
└─ deblur =1.1.1 * is not installable because it requires
└─ sortmerna ==2.0 *, which conflicts with any installable versions previously reported.
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda deactivate
jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda activate qiime2-amplicon-2026.1
(qiime2-amplicon-2026.1) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ qiime info
qiime: command not found
(qiime2-amplicon-2026.1) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$
1 Like
One clarification: if you can confirm that the new QIIME 2 version is working properly and installs without issues on different platforms (including Windows WSL), then we can close the question, as it would clearly be something specific to my system. I posted the comment because I saw another user experiencing the same problem. Thank you very much!
1 Like
Hey @ja.morillo,
Thanks for following up and providing those details. This does look like a separate issue than what @timanix ran into, as this is actually a failure in conda's ability to solve the requested environment (rather than an issue upon environment activation). We have had successful install confirmations for 2026.1 on linux, so my initial guess here is that you may have some conflicting packages in your base conda environment that are unintentionally getting pulled into conda's attempt to solve this environment.
Let's look at a couple of things to get a better idea though- could you please run the following commands and share the output in your reply (first making sure to run conda deactivate so that we are looking at your base env):
conda info
conda list
Hello, thanks a lot for your reply and time. I copy here what you requested:
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda deactivate
jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda info
active environment :
shell level : 0
user config file : /home/jmorillo/.condarc
populated config files : /home/jmorillo/.condarc
conda version : 26.1.0
conda-build version : not installed
python version : 3.12.3.final.0
solver : libmamba (default)
virtual packages : __archspec=1=zen2
__conda=26.1.0=0
__cuda=12.6=0
__glibc=2.35=0
__linux=6.6.87.2=0
__unix=0=0
base environment : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3 (writable)
conda av data dir : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/etc/conda
conda av metadata url : None
channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
package cache : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/pkgs
/home/jmorillo/.conda/pkgs
envs directories : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs
/home/jmorillo/.conda/envs
temporary directory : /tmp
platform : linux-64
user-agent : conda/26.1.0 requests/2.31.0 CPython/3.12.3 Linux/6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 ubuntu/22.04.4 glibc/2.35 solver/libmamba conda-libmamba-solver/25.11.0 libmambapy/2.0.5 aau/0.4.4 c/gjsG7u7vlgB6ZDXGudh2Sg s/95R62D5hLyudXytNTgdZaw e/PHo1UBaHUijkGIBkJoopbQ
UID:GID : 1000:1000
netrc file : None
offline mode : False
jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda list
DirectoryNotACondaEnvironmentError: The target directory exists, but it is not a conda environment.
Use 'conda create' to convert the directory to a conda environment.
target directory: /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs
jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:/mnt/c/Users/jmorillo$ conda env list
# conda environments:
#
# * -> active
# + -> frozen
base /home/jmorillo/miniconda3
SqueezeMeta /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/SqueezeMeta
qiime2-amplicon-2024.10 /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2024.10
qiime2-amplicon-2024.2 /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2024.2
qiime2-amplicon-2024.5 /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2024.5
qiime2-amplicon-2025.7 /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2025.7
singlem /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs/singlem
Thanks @ja.morillo, this information is helpful- let's actually have you run conda activate base and then re-run conda info inside that environment. Thanks!
1 Like
thanks, here it is:
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~/qiime2/conda info
active environment : base
active env location : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3
shell level : 4
user config file : /home/jmorillo/.condarc
populated config files : /home/jmorillo/.condarc
conda version : 26.1.0
conda-build version : not installed
python version : 3.12.3.final.0
solver : libmamba (default)
virtual packages : __archspec=1=zen2
__conda=26.1.0=0
__cuda=12.6=0
__glibc=2.35=0
__linux=6.6.87.2=0
__unix=0=0
base environment : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3 (writable)
conda av data dir : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/etc/conda
conda av metadata url : None
channel URLs : https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/noarch
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/linux-64
https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/r/noarch
package cache : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/pkgs
/home/jmorillo/.conda/pkgs
envs directories : /home/jmorillo/miniconda3/envs
/home/jmorillo/.conda/envs
temporary directory : /tmp
platform : linux-64
user-agent : conda/26.1.0 requests/2.31.0 CPython/3.12.3 Linux/6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2 ubuntu/22.04.4 glibc/2.35 solver/libmamba conda-libmamba-solver/25.11.0 libmambapy/2.0.5 aau/0.4.4 c/gjsG7u7vlgB6ZDXGudh2Sg s/4A-Pj_gHDBsYOuP-KQYYtQ e/t31-ycBFoFzwbgO10lFSuA
UID:GID : 1000:1000
netrc file : None
offline mode : False
1 Like
Hey @ja.morillo,
My apologies for the back and forth; can I also see conda list inside your base environment? Thanks!
sure, thanks:
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~/qiime2/analysis/Kruger_soil/analysisITS_q2024.5_newUN
ITE$ conda list
# packages in environment at /home/jmorillo/miniconda3:
#
# Name Version Build Channel
_libgcc_mutex 0.1 main
_openmp_mutex 5.1 1_gnu
anaconda-anon-usage 0.4.4 py312hfc0e8ea_100
annotated-types 0.7.0 pypi_0 pypi
archspec 0.2.3 pyhd3eb1b0_0
attrs 25.3.0 pypi_0 pypi
boltons 23.0.0 py312h06a4308_0
boto3 1.39.7 pypi_0 pypi
botocore 1.39.7 pypi_0 pypi
brotli-python 1.0.9 py312h6a678d5_8
bzip2 1.0.8 h5eee18b_6
c-ares 1.19.1 h5eee18b_0
ca-certificates 2025.12.2 h06a4308_0
certifi 2026.01.04 py312h06a4308_0
cffi 1.16.0 py312h5eee18b_1
charset-normalizer 2.0.4 pyhd3eb1b0_0
click 8.2.1 pypi_0 pypi
coloredlogs 15.0.1 pypi_0 pypi
colormath2 3.0.3 pypi_0 pypi
conda 26.1.0 py312h06a4308_0
conda-content-trust 0.2.0 py312h06a4308_1
conda-libmamba-solver 25.11.0 pyhdf14ebd_0
conda-package-handling 2.2.0 py312h06a4308_1
conda-package-streaming 0.9.0 py312h06a4308_0
cpp-expected 1.1.0 hdb19cb5_0
cryptography 42.0.5 py312hdda0065_1
distro 1.9.0 py312h06a4308_0
expat 2.6.2 h6a678d5_0
fmt 9.1.0 hdb19cb5_1
frozendict 2.4.2 py312h06a4308_0
humanfriendly 10.0 pypi_0 pypi
humanize 4.12.3 pypi_0 pypi
icu 73.1 h6a678d5_0
idna 3.7 py312h06a4308_0
importlib-metadata 8.7.0 pypi_0 pypi
jinja2 3.1.6 pypi_0 pypi
jmespath 1.0.1 pypi_0 pypi
jsonpatch 1.33 py312h06a4308_1
jsonpointer 2.1 pyhd3eb1b0_0
jsonschema 4.24.0 pypi_0 pypi
jsonschema-specifications 2025.4.1 pypi_0 pypi
kaleido 0.2.1 pypi_0 pypi
krb5 1.20.1 h143b758_1
ld_impl_linux-64 2.38 h1181459_1
libarchive 3.7.7 hfab0078_0
libcurl 8.7.1 h251f7ec_0
libedit 3.1.20230828 h5eee18b_0
libev 4.33 h7f8727e_1
libffi 3.4.4 h6a678d5_1
libgcc 15.2.0 h69a1729_7
libgcc-ng 15.2.0 h166f726_7
libgomp 15.2.0 h4751f2c_7
libidn2 2.3.4 h5eee18b_0
libmamba 2.0.5 haf1ee3a_1
libmambapy 2.0.5 py312hdb19cb5_1
libnghttp2 1.57.0 h2d74bed_0
libsolv 0.7.30 he621ea3_1
libssh2 1.11.0 h251f7ec_0
libstdcxx-ng 11.2.0 h1234567_1
libunistring 0.9.10 h27cfd23_0
libuuid 1.41.5 h5eee18b_0
libxml2 2.13.9 h2c43086_0
lz4-c 1.9.4 h6a678d5_1
markdown 3.8.2 pypi_0 pypi
markdown-it-py 3.0.0 pypi_0 pypi
markupsafe 3.0.2 pypi_0 pypi
mdurl 0.1.2 pypi_0 pypi
menuinst 2.0.2 py312h06a4308_1
msgpack-python 1.1.1 py312h6a678d5_0
multiqc 1.30 pypi_0 pypi
narwhals 1.47.0 pypi_0 pypi
natsort 8.4.0 pypi_0 pypi
ncurses 6.4 h6a678d5_0
networkx 3.5 pypi_0 pypi
nlohmann_json 3.11.2 h6a678d5_0
numpy 2.3.1 pypi_0 pypi
openssl 3.0.19 h1b28b03_0
packaging 23.2 py312h06a4308_0
pcre2 10.42 hebb0a14_1
pillow 11.3.0 pypi_0 pypi
pip 24.0 py312h06a4308_0
platformdirs 3.10.0 py312h06a4308_0
plotly 6.2.0 pypi_0 pypi
pluggy 1.0.0 py312h06a4308_1
polars-lts-cpu 1.31.0 pypi_0 pypi
pyarrow 20.0.0 pypi_0 pypi
pybind11-abi 5 hd3eb1b0_0
pycosat 0.6.6 py312h5eee18b_1
pycparser 2.21 pyhd3eb1b0_0
pydantic 2.11.7 pypi_0 pypi
pydantic-core 2.33.2 pypi_0 pypi
pygments 2.19.2 pypi_0 pypi
pysocks 1.7.1 py312h06a4308_0
python 3.12.3 h996f2a0_1
python-dateutil 2.9.0.post0 pypi_0 pypi
python-dotenv 1.1.1 pypi_0 pypi
pyyaml 6.0.2 pypi_0 pypi
readline 8.2 h5eee18b_0
referencing 0.36.2 pypi_0 pypi
regex 2024.11.6 pypi_0 pypi
reproc 14.2.4 h6a678d5_2
reproc-cpp 14.2.4 h6a678d5_2
requests 2.31.0 py312h06a4308_1
rich 14.0.0 pypi_0 pypi
rich-click 1.8.9 pypi_0 pypi
rpds-py 0.26.0 pypi_0 pypi
ruamel.yaml 0.17.21 py312h5eee18b_0
s3transfer 0.13.0 pypi_0 pypi
seqkit 2.8.2 h9ee0642_0 bioconda
setuptools 69.5.1 py312h06a4308_0
simdjson 3.10.1 hdb19cb5_0
six 1.17.0 pypi_0 pypi
spdlog 1.11.0 hdb19cb5_0
spectra 0.1.0 pypi_0 pypi
sqlite 3.45.3 h5eee18b_0
tiktoken 0.9.0 pypi_0 pypi
tk 8.6.14 h39e8969_0
tqdm 4.66.2 py312he106c6f_0
truststore 0.8.0 py312h06a4308_0
typeguard 4.4.4 pypi_0 pypi
typing-extensions 4.14.1 pypi_0 pypi
typing-inspection 0.4.1 pypi_0 pypi
tzdata 2024a h04d1e81_0
urllib3 2.1.0 py312h06a4308_1
wget 1.21.4 h251f7ec_1
wheel 0.43.0 py312h06a4308_0
xz 5.6.4 h5eee18b_1
yaml-cpp 0.8.0 h6a678d5_1
zipp 3.23.0 pypi_0 pypi
zlib 1.2.13 h5eee18b_1
zstandard 0.22.0 py312h2c38b39_0
zstd 1.5.5 hc292b87_2
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~/qiime2/analysis/Kruger_soil/analysisITS_q2024.5_newUNITE$
Hey @ja.morillo,
Thanks for sharing this, this is actually really helpful - it looks like your base env has a lot of added dependencies, which is likely why you received a failed environment solve even after you attempted to downgrade conda. Let's try the following - in your base env, go ahead and run:
conda install -c conda-forge conda=25.11.1
I'm guessing you already tried this (as you mentioned above) but I just want to see what dependency conflicts arise so we can find a way to walk this back to a place that's more compatible without making any major changes to your conda distribution. That being said, if no conflicts come up go ahead and accept the package changes that will come along with this version of conda and then try re-installing 2026.1 from there!
1 Like
Perhaps this is indicating something?
I don’t want to keep bothering the QIIME 2 forum if this is something super specific to my system — I really just wanted to clarify that. Somehow it seems that installing software in other conda environments is affecting this latest version of QIIME, although I was under the impression that conda environments were supposed to be completely isolated compartments.
Thanks again!
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~$ conda install -c conda-forge conda=25.11.1
Channels:
- conda-forge
- defaults
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done
Solving environment: done
==> WARNING: A newer version of conda exists. <==
current version: 25.11.1
latest version: 26.1.0
Please update conda by running
$ conda update -n base -c conda-forge conda
# All requested packages already installed.
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~$ conda env create \
--name qiime2-amplicon-2026.1 \
--file https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qiime2/distributions/refs/heads/dev/2026.1/amplicon/released/qiime2-amplicon-ubuntu-latest-conda.yml
Channels:
- conda-forge
- bioconda
- https://packages.qiime2.org/qiime2/2026.1/amplicon/released
- defaults
Platform: linux-64
Collecting package metadata (repodata.json): done
Solving environment: failed
LibMambaUnsatisfiableError: Encountered problems while solving:
- package deblur-1.1.1-pyhdfd78af_0 requires sortmerna 2.0, but none of the providers can be installed
Could not solve for environment specs
The following package could not be installed
└─ deblur =1.1.1 * is not installable because it requires
└─ sortmerna ==2.0 *, which conflicts with any installable versions previously reported.
(base) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~$ conda deactivate
conda activate qiime2-amplicon-2026.1
qiime info
qiime: command not found
(qiime2-amplicon-2026.1) jmorillo@DBIOI-24GEN:~$
1 Like
Hey @ja.morillo,
Thanks for this!
No worries at all, I'm happy to keep troubleshooting as we are able since this may be something that comes up for other users - I just want to make sure we explore all avenues so that you can get this latest version of QIIME 2 working on your machine!
Yes, conda environments are isolated and have no effect on one another at runtime - but I have seen a few instances where something in a user's base env has impacted the creation of another env (such as a failed solve or activation issue), although this was usually related to a pre-existing version of R on their native machine in addition to the base env. It's hard to say for sure, which is why I wanted to examine your base env just to see if anything stood out.
It is interesting though when you're running conda install... it doesn't seem to actually change the version of conda that's being used. You could double check this by running conda --version, but I suspect it will still be 26.1.0.
Let's take a look at one other thing that could be a problem - can you run the following command and share the output?
conda config --show channel_priority
With strict channel priority, packages in lower priority channels are not considered if a package with the same name appears in a higher priority channel. This can provide a much faster solve time, but can also produce these LibMambaUnsatisfiableError outcomes more frequently because lower priority channels may often have the requisite package versions that the higher priority channel(s) are missing.
If strict channel_priority is enabled, you can try running conda config --set channel_priority flexible and then attempt to re-install QIIME 2 2026.1.
Cheers 
2 Likes
I just wanted to mention that I was running into a somewhat similar issue installing 2026.1 onto my M1 Macbook Pro.
I was getting similar errors for all 2026.1 distributions:
...
...
Executing transaction: done
ERROR conda.core.link:_execute(1033): An error occurred while installing package 'bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1'.
Rolling back transaction: done
LinkError: post-link script failed for package bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1
location of failed script: /Users/mrobeson/AnalysisSoftware/miniforge3/envs/qiime2-amplicon-2026.1/bin/.bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-post-link.sh
==> script messages <==
<None>
==> script output <==
stdout:
stderr:
return code: 1
()
My conda version was 26.1.0. Thus, I followed the suggestion to run:
This resulted in success, as all the other 2026.1 distributions installed successfully too! 
3 Likes
Hi, I just wanted to jump into this discussion because I ran into a similar (though slightly different) issue (seems like a recurring one mentioned in earlier posts) when installing qiime2-amplicon-2026.1 onto M4 MacBook Pro.
An error occurred while installing package 'bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1'. Rolling back transaction: done LinkError: post-link script failed for package bioconda::bioconductor-genomeinfodbdata-1.2.11-r43hdfd78af_1`
Following the steps in this thread resolved it for me.
Truly, a huge thank-you to @lizgehret for being so generous with your time and going into the details so thoroughly - It’s genuinely so nice to see how much care the moderators here put into helping users out everyday. I really appreciate it! 
(and I’m sure a lot of silent readers do too!)
Quick follow-up question: I fixed the problem by downgrading conda from 26.1.0 to 25.11.1. Before that, (I didn’t figure out the exact issue within my conda but) I tried to make conda 26.1.0 work by resetting my global channel list and setting channel priority to flexible, and that didn’t help.
For future installs of the latest QIIME 2, is it still okay to run conda update conda before installing, or should I avoid updating conda?
5 Likes
Hey @Chumei_Tang,
Thanks for your support and for this follow-up!
Typically this shouldn't be an issue- I'm still trying to understand why the latest version of conda is causing problems with our environment installs, but we will have a sizable number of package/dependency updates coming in 2026.4, so hopefully this will resolve any dependency issues with the latest version of conda.
Cheers
2 Likes