# Unknown ufl object type VectorElement error
**URL:** https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/unknown-ufl-object-type-vectorelement-error/13145
**Category:** General
**Created:** [December 24, 2023, 9:11am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/unknown-ufl-object-type-vectorelement-error/13145 "2023-12-24T09:11:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@onur](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/onur)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2023, 9:11am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/unknown-ufl-object-type-vectorelement-error/13145/1 "2023-12-24T09:11:53Z")
I received such an error. I deleted the files in this directory but the problem persists. (`/home/yourname/.local`)
Unknown ufl object type VectorElement
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/home/runo/asdasdas/test2/test2.py”, line 22, in
V = VectorFunctionSpace(mesh, ‘Lagrange’, degree = 2)
File “/usr/lib/petsc/lib/python3/dist-packages/dolfin/function/functionspace.py”, line 245, in VectorFunctionSpace
return FunctionSpace(mesh, element, constrained\_domain=constrained\_domain)
File “/usr/lib/petsc/lib/python3/dist-packages/dolfin/function/functionspace.py”, line 31, in **init**
self.\_init\_from\_ufl(\*args, \*\*kwargs)
File “/usr/lib/petsc/lib/python3/dist-packages/dolfin/function/functionspace.py”, line 42, in \_init\_from\_ufl
ufc\_element, ufc\_dofmap = ffc\_jit(element, form\_compiler\_parameters=None,
File “/usr/lib/petsc/lib/python3/dist-packages/dolfin/jit/jit.py”, line 50, in mpi\_jit
return local\_jit(\*args, \*\*kwargs)
File “/usr/lib/petsc/lib/python3/dist-packages/dolfin/jit/jit.py”, line 100, in ffc\_jit
return ffc.jit(ufl\_form, parameters=p)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ffc/jitcompiler.py”, line 214, in jit
kind, module\_name = compute\_jit\_prefix(ufl\_object, parameters)
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ffc/jitcompiler.py”, line 156, in compute\_jit\_prefix
error(“Unknown ufl object type %s” % (ufl\_object. **class**. **name** ,))
File “”, line 1, in
File “/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/ufl/log.py”, line 172, in error
raise self.\_exception\_type(self.\_format\_raw(\*message))
Exception: Unknown ufl object type VectorElement
---
### Author:  [@francesco-ballarin](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/francesco-ballarin)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2023, 8:14pm UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/unknown-ufl-object-type-vectorelement-error/13145/2 "2023-12-24T20:14:22Z")
You have a mixture of system wide installation in `/usr/lib/`, and an installation that you obtained in some other way in `/usr/local/lib`.
Make a backup of `/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages` and the proceed with uninstalling `ffc` and `ufl` from there. After you have done that, they will be importing from `/usr/lib/`, not `/usr/local/lib`.
Once you are at it, look at [Announcement: ufl\_legacy and legacy dolfin](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/announcement-ufl-legacy-and-legacy-dolfin/11583) just in case (summary: from now on you should import `ufl_legacy`, and not `ufl`, if you have any such import in your own code.)