Different behavior when adding virtual environment

[efakinpelu]

I tried addding a conda environment following this steps

1. conda create -n virtual_env
2. conda activate virtual_env
3. conda install pip
4. pip install ipykernel

With
5. ipython -m ipykernel install --user --prefix VIRTUAL_ENV_DIR --name virtual_env --display-name VIRTUAL_ENV

I got Value Error: Can't use prefix and user

With
6. ipython -m ipykernel install --prefix VIRTUAL_ENV_DIR --name virtual_env --diplay-name VIRTUAL_ENV

The virtual environment is installed in the specified --prefix directory
VIRTUAL_ENV is not listed in the kernel list on jupyter notebook

With
7. ipython -m ipykernel install --user --name virtual_env --display-name VIRTUAL_ENV

Virtual environment installs in ~/.local/share directory
VIRTUAL_ENV is listed in the kernel list on jupyter notebook

Now though the Virtual Environment is listed and could be selected in the Jupyter Lab Launcher, the environment variables in the virtual environment goes to defaults.

For instance $CONDA_PREFIX remains /opt/conda in all Notebook instances (Virtual Environment or Default Environment)

Is this the normal way the software is expected to behave?

How do I make the virtual_env visible in the jupyter kernel space and usable installed in the preferred directory?

The instance is ruuning on Google JupyterLab User Managed Notebook