WhisperX virtual environment not valid Python Environment - Can't transcribe anything

[ironlion27]

Using the standard docker-compose.yml for basic CPU transcription. Fresh install. Only mod is mapping persistent location for volumes but these folders are brand new for this project.

docker compose up

Everything looking good until I ask for any transcription to occur. Then get this error in logs:

Error: scriberr-1 | time=21:49:52 level=ERROR msg="Job processing failed" worker_id=0 job_id=8fd8bb72-6b64-41bb-9e3c-84066a686738 error="single-track processing failed: transcription failed: WhisperX execution failed: exit status 2\nLogs:\nerror: Project virtual environment directory /app/whisperx-env/WhisperX/.venv cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)\n"

Please advise.

[rishikanthc]

Did the setup complete successfully ? Can you show startup logs?

[ironlion27]

Setup completed successfully.

Here are startup logs:

Attaching to scriberr-1
scriberr-1  | === Scriberr Container Setup ===
scriberr-1  | Requested UID: 1000, GID: 1000
scriberr-1  | Using default user (UID=1000, GID=1000)
scriberr-1  | Setting up data directories...
scriberr-1  | === Setup Complete ===
scriberr-1  | Switching to user appuser (UID=1000, GID=1000) and starting application...
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Starting Scriberr" version=dev
scriberr-1  | [+] Loading configuration
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Registering adapters with environment path" whisperx_env=/app/whisperx-env
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Adapter registration complete"
scriberr-1  | [+] Connecting to database
scriberr-1  | [+] Setting up authentication
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing SSE broadcaster
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing repositories
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing services
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing transcription service
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing transcription service
scriberr-1  | [+] Preparing Python environment
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Initializing unified transcription service"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Initializing registered models in parallel..."
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Preparing NVIDIA Sortformer environment" env_path=/app/whisperx-env/parakeet
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="transcription model initialized" model_id=openai_whisper
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Preparing PyAnnote environment" env_path=/app/whisperx-env/pyannote
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Preparing NVIDIA Canary environment" env_path=/app/whisperx-env/parakeet
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Preparing WhisperX environment" env_path=/app/whisperx-env
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Preparing NVIDIA Parakeet environment" env_path=/app/whisperx-env/parakeet
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Sortformer model already exists" path=/app/whisperx-env/parakeet/diar_streaming_sortformer_4spk-v2.nemo size=471367680
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Sortformer environment prepared successfully"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="diarization model initialized" model_id=sortformer
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Installing PyAnnote dependencies"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Environment already configured by Parakeet"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Canary model already exists" path=/app/whisperx-env/parakeet/canary-1b-v2.nemo size=6358958080
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Canary environment prepared successfully"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="transcription model initialized" model_id=canary
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Parakeet environment not ready, setting up"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Installing Parakeet dependencies"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level=ERROR msg="Failed to initialize transcription model" model_id=whisperx error="failed to clone WhisperX: git clone failed: exit status 128: fatal: destination path 'WhisperX' already exists and is not an empty directory."
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level=ERROR msg="Failed to initialize diarization model" model_id=pyannote error="failed to setup PyAnnote environment: uv sync failed: exit status 2: error: Project virtual environment directory `/app/whisperx-env/pyannote/.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level=ERROR msg="Failed to initialize transcription model" model_id=parakeet error="failed to setup Parakeet environment: uv sync failed: exit status 2: error: Project virtual environment directory `/app/whisperx-env/parakeet/.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="WARN " msg="Some models failed to initialize" error_count=3
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="WARN " msg="Model initialization error" error="transcription model whisperx: failed to clone WhisperX: git clone failed: exit status 128: fatal: destination path 'WhisperX' already exists and is not an empty directory."
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="WARN " msg="Model initialization error" error="diarization model pyannote: failed to setup PyAnnote environment: uv sync failed: exit status 2: error: Project virtual environment directory `/app/whisperx-env/pyannote/.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="WARN " msg="Model initialization error" error="transcription model parakeet: failed to setup Parakeet environment: uv sync failed: exit status 2: error: Project virtual environment directory `/app/whisperx-env/parakeet/.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Model initialization completed"
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:11 level="INFO " msg="Unified transcription service initialized successfully"
scriberr-1  | [+] Initializing quick transcription service
scriberr-1  | [+] Starting background processing
scriberr-1  | time=15:50:12 level="INFO " msg="Scriberr is ready" url=http://0.0.0.0:8080

Here's transcription fail logs:

scriberr-1  | INFO  15:47:00 POST /api/v1/auth/login 200 78.37ms
scriberr-1  | INFO  15:47:01 GET /api/v1/profiles/ 200 1.15ms
scriberr-1  | INFO  15:47:01 GET /api/v1/transcription/list?page=1&limit=20&sort_by=created_at&sort_order=desc 200 1.29ms
scriberr-1  | 
scriberr-1  | 2026/03/06 15:47:13 /src/internal/repository/implementations.go:271 record not found
scriberr-1  | [0.218ms] [rows:0] SELECT * FROM `transcription_profiles` WHERE is_default = true ORDER BY `transcription_profiles`.`id` LIMIT 1
scriberr-1  | INFO  15:47:13 POST /api/v1/transcription/upload 200 7.78ms
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:13 level="INFO " msg="Processing job with unified processor (with process registration)" job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:13 level="INFO " msg="Processing job with unified service" job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:13 level="INFO " msg="Processing single-track job" job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e model_family=whisper
scriberr-1  | INFO  15:47:13 GET /api/v1/transcription/list?page=1&limit=20&sort_by=created_at&sort_order=desc 200 0.52ms
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Audio metadata extracted" file=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e.webm sample_rate=48000 channels=1 duration=2s size=80403
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Selected models" transcription=whisperx diarization="" original_family=whisper original_diarize_model=pyannote
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Applying preprocessor" type=*pipeline.AudioFormatPreprocessor
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Converting audio format" from_format=webm to_format=wav from_sample_rate=48000 to_sample_rate=16000 from_channels=1 to_channels=1
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Audio conversion completed" output_path=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e_converted.wav output_size=159438
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Audio preprocessing completed" original=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e.webm converted=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e_converted.wav original_sr=48000 converted_sr=16000 original_channels=1 converted_channels=1
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Running transcription" model_id=whisperx
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Starting model processing" model_id=whisperx job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e audio_file=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e_converted.wav audio_format=wav audio_duration=2s audio_size=159438
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Validating parameters for model" model_id=whisperx param_count=16
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Executing WhisperX command" args="run --native-tls --project /app/whisperx-env/WhisperX python -m whisperx /app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e_converted.wav --output_dir data/temp/whisperx/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e --model small --device cpu --device_index 0 --batch_size 8 --compute_type float32 --output_format all --verbose True --task transcribe --vad_method pyannote --vad_onset 0.500 --vad_offset 0.363 --temperature 0.00 --best_of 5 --beam_size 5 --patience 1.00 --print_progress False"
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level=ERROR msg="WhisperX execution failed" error="exit status 2"
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Model processing completed" model_id=whisperx job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e processing_time=50.036253ms
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level="INFO " msg="Cleaned up temporary file" file=/app/data/uploads/b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e_converted.wav
scriberr-1  | time=15:47:19 level=ERROR msg="Job processing failed" worker_id=0 job_id=b4065913-2b66-4806-b4bb-54d068a2d03e error="single-track processing failed: transcription failed: WhisperX execution failed: exit status 2\nLogs:\nerror: Project virtual environment directory `/app/whisperx-env/WhisperX/.venv` cannot be used because it is not a valid Python environment (no Python executable was found)\n"