Here is a typical error that students ran into during the server setup. If you encounter this problem, no worries: there is a solution! Here:

ISSUE: Jupyter Notebook runs in Terminal but doesn't open in the browser

If you see this, there is a 99% chance that the problem is with your Jupyter config file.

Remember? You generated a config file for Jupyter on your server by running this command:

jupyter notebook --generate-config

To debug the issue, we want to take a look at that file to figure out what's missing.

You can do that by running this one line in Terminal:

cat /home/[your_username]/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

(The [your_username] part should be replaced with your username, so in my case it will be:

cat /home/dataguy/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py)

What do you see?
The last six lines should be:

The important part is the last two lines. (The lines starting with # are ignored anyway.)

When you went through the tutorial, you had to add these two lines to the config file by running these two commands:

echo "c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'" >> /home/[your_username]/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

echo "c.NotebookApp.allow_remote_access = True" >> /home/[your_username]/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

>> If they are not there at all and you see this on your screen...

That means that you either forgot to run the commands above, or mistyped something in them.

(Most likely you forgot to change the [your_username] part to your actual username.

E.g. instead of this:
echo "c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'" >> /home/[your_username]/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

...for me it should be this:
echo "c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'" >> /home/dataguy/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py)

If that’s the problem, simply run (or re-run) these two commands, double-check your config file, and you are good to go.

>> If the lines are there but you mistyped something in them:

OR if you see the expected last two lines multiple times (some of them mistyped):

...well, first of all, don't worry, this is one of the most typical mistakes! Other participants did this too.

Secondly, unfortunately, with your current knowledge, it's really difficult to fix it yourself, so you can do two things:

1) Reach out to me (Tomi) via email and I will go ahead and fix the issue for you.

If you prefer this one, please create a new user for me on your server (make sure that you don't store any confidential data there right now, though ;-)) by typing these two commands:

• sudo adduser tomi
• sudo usermod -aG sudo tomi

Once that's done, send me an email, containing the username and password you created for me on your server and your server's IP address. With that, I'll be able to login and fix the issue for you -- and then I'll send you a follow-up email.

2) The alternative is something that students usually don't like -- regardless, I encourage you to go with this one because from a learning perspective that's the most useful for you.

This is: destroy your current server and try to set up a new one from scratch. If you choose this option, put an extra emphasis on making sure that you avoid any typos and that you follow the tutorial very thoroughly.

Remember, a single mistyped character can cause an issue. But if you type in everything accurately, the server will work.

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PS. If these weren't your issue, send me an email and I'll help you!