# Ansible Installation Disappears - No longer installed

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Tags:** ubuntu\
**Created:** [June 13, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789 "2018-06-13T08:25:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carlton\_Patterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Carlton\_Patterson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carlton_Patterson)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/1 "2018-06-13T08:25:05Z")

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Hello Community,

I completed a full installation of Ansible on my ubuntu 16.04 machine. The installation was on Oracle Virtualbox. However, when I rebooted the machine Ansible was no longer installed.

Can someone let me know why it has disappeared - extremely annoying

Thanks

Carlton

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**Author:** ![Carlton\_Patterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Carlton\_Patterson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carlton_Patterson)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:27am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/2 "2018-06-13T08:27:50Z")

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Hi guys,

This is what I’m seeing when I try to run Ansible

packt@ubuntu2:~$ ansible --version  
The program ‘ansible’ is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:  
sudo apt install ansible  
packt@ubuntu2:~$

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**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:46am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/3 "2018-06-13T08:46:13Z")

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It can’t uninstall itself,  
​so ​  
​the options are:

- you did not install it where you think you installed it

- such as a different VM to the one you have started

- or onto the underlying system instead of the VM

- or you were doing it over the network onto a totally different computer

- you installed it on a transient medium

- you installed it as “guest”

- you installed it as User A and are now logged in as User B

- you installed it onto a medium that is no longer mounted  
… and so on.

Or you were dreaming about Ansible and now you have woken up 🙂

Regards, K.

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**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 8:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/4 "2018-06-13T08:53:43Z")

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Oh wait - when you say you “rebooted the machine” do you mean you rebooted the virtual machine, or the host machine?

If you installed Ansible into a virtualbox VM, then you will have to run Virtualbox, and then run the VM that you installed Ansible into.

If that is already clear to you, please forgive me for mentioning it. Just making sure there is no fundamental misunderstanding going on here.

Regards, K.

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**Author:** ![Carlton\_Patterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Carlton\_Patterson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carlton_Patterson)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 9:07am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/5 "2018-06-13T09:07:17Z")

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Hi Karl

Thanks for responding.

I hear what you’re saying, but I definitely installed it on my ubuntu last night. Check out my post last night regarding a question I had

[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ansible-project/HtoVVNjwM40](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ansible-project/HtoVVNjwM40)

As you can see I installed version 2.5.4

However, when I spun up the VM this morning and I run the same command ansible --verision I get the following:

The program ‘ansible’ is currently not installed

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**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 9:15am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/6 "2018-06-13T09:15:07Z")

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Hi Carlton.

I understand, but rule one in computer troubleshooting is “there is no such thing as magic”.

If you definitely installed it and it is gone now, then either you (or someone else) uninstalled it or you installed it elsewhere, installed it as guest or installed it on transient media. It cannot have uninstalled itself.

Another possibility occurs to me. Did you perhaps install it in a virtual python environment? If so, restart that environment and you may find Ansible waiting for you. This is a variant of “you installed it elsewhere” 🙂

To check this theory, perhaps you can go back in the shell command history to see exactly how you installed Ansible.

Regards, K.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Carlton\_Patterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Carlton\_Patterson](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carlton_Patterson)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 10:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/7 "2018-06-13T10:23:50Z")

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Hi Karl,

Thanks again for reaching out.

I did install on a virtual python environment …although I followed instructions on how to install it on the python environment (I’m a novice)…

Can you let me know how restart the environment - I would’ve thought that rebooting the machine would’ve been equivalent to restarting the environment.

As a side not… are you able to provide any further assistance with my other request regarding Ansible no loading my Azure credentials ?

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**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\
**Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 10:34am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-installation-disappears-no-longer-installed/27789/8 "2018-06-13T10:34:01Z")

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Argh sorry, I switched threads by not paying attention.

Can’t help you with Azure, I have purchased an expensive barge pole for the express purpose of not touching Azure with 🙂

Re the virtual environment - try those “find” commands. If you find an executable called “ansible”, there’s your installation.

If not, then either you installed on a different system altogether or have somehow restored the virtual to a previous state (eg from snapshot) since installing.

Regards, K.
