Frequently Asked Questions


  • Failed with error code 255

    The error: ““python setup.py egg_info” failed with error code 255” can be fixed by upgrading to the latest Pip version. Use the following command in your terminal:

    python -m pip install -U pip

    For more information on installing and upgrading Pip, navigate to the official Pip documentation page here.

  • How to Install BciPy on Mac M1 Chip

    Instructions apply for BciPy versions 2.0.0rc1 through 2.0.0rc4

    If you are using a computer with the Mac M1 chip, you may run into issues with installing some packages of BciPy including psychopy and pyqt5.

    The best workaround for this is to use the Rosetta 2 Terminal, which emulates an i386 architecture instead of arm64.

    To create a Rosetta Terminal:

    1. Open finder and naviagate into applications. Locate the Terminal app

    2. Right click on the terminal app and click “Get info”. From the “Get info” menu, check the box that says “Open using Rosetta”.

    3. Force quit the terminal application and reopen a new terminal window.

    Verify you’re in the rosetta terminal by running arch command (should see i386). Only use the Rosetta Terminal for all the following steps/any usage of BciPy. You can configure your IDE to use rosetta terminal too through some googling.

    To Install BciPy (within the Rosetta Terminal)

    Pre-requisite: install brew

    1. Git clone https://github.com/BciPy/BciPy.git. Check in to the most up to date branch.

    2. Run the following command in your terminal:

      arch -arm64 brew install python@3.9

      Reinstall If you already had python 3.9

      arch -arm64 brew reinstall python@3.9

    3. Create a virtual environment using python 3.9:

      python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv

    4. Open the virtual environment:

      source venv/bin/activate

    5. Edit the following lines in requirements.txt accordingly
      • pylsl==1.14.0 –> pylsl==1.15.0
      • pyedflib==0.1.30 –> pyedflib
      • PyQt5==5.15.1 –> pyqt5
    6. Globally installing pyqt5

      arch -arm64 brew install pyqt@5

    7. Run the following command in your terminal (make sure that your pip is up to date if there are any issues at this step):

      pip install -r requirements.txt

      pip install -r dev_requirements.txt

      pip install -e .

    8. Install XCode and enable command line tools:

      xcode-select --install

    9. To install the M1 compatible version of PsychoPy, run:

      pip install Psychopy==2023.1.0 --install-option="--no-deps"

    You can open and use the Rosetta terminal within different IDEs. You just have to make sure that you add it in the settings and then switch to it before you try to run BciPy scripts. The correct packages are only installed in the Rosetta Terminal, so BciPy will not work in zsh/bash, etc.

  • Where can I find more information about CAMBI?

    Please navigate to our Official Website for additional information.

  • Will BciPy work on my machine?

    BciPy is designed to install on the latest Windows (7, 10, 11), Linux (Ubuntu 22.04) and MacOS (Big Sur, Monterey) operating systems. Other versions may work as well, but are not guaranteed. To see the updated list of supported python versions and operating systems visit the GitHub page here. Please see the Hardware and OS Configuration page for additional information on hardware requirements for use in data collection.