Could not find the GDAL library

[jlesech]

I'm facing an issue with django-leaflet v0.27.x related to a missing GDAL library. My Django project was working fine without GDAL until django-leaflet v0.26.0.

I took a look at the recent commits between v0.26.0 and v0.27.0 and I found this one: Drop outdated backport files.

I'm using Python 3.8 on Ubuntu 20.04 and these packages:

Django==2.2.14
django-geojson==3.0.0
django-leaflet==0.27.1
geopy==2.0.0
jsonfield==3.1.0

Stacktrace:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./manage.py", line 21, in <module>
    main()
  File "./manage.py", line 17, in main
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 381, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 357, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 24, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 114, in populate
    app_config.import_models()
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/apps/config.py", line 211, in import_models
    self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1014, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 991, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 671, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 783, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/home/user/workspace-py/webmapping/myapp/models.py", line 3, in <module>
    from djgeojson.fields import PolygonField
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/djgeojson/fields.py", line 8, in <module>
    from leaflet.forms.widgets import LeafletWidget
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/leaflet/forms/widgets.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.forms.widgets import BaseGeometryWidget
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/forms/__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
    from .fields import (  # NOQA
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/forms/fields.py", line 2, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal import GDALException
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/__init__.py", line 28, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.datasource import DataSource
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/datasource.py", line 39, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.driver import Driver
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/driver.py", line 5, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.prototypes import ds as vcapi, raster as rcapi
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/prototypes/ds.py", line 9, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.libgdal import GDAL_VERSION, lgdal
  File "/home/user/venvs/myproject/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py", line 40, in <module>
    raise ImproperlyConfigured(
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Could not find the GDAL library (tried "gdal", "GDAL", "gdal2.3.0", "gdal2.2.0", "gdal2.1.0", "gdal2.0.0", "gdal1.11.0"). Is GDAL installed? If it is, try setting GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.

Is the GDAL library now required?

[Gagaro]

Unfortunately, importing anything from GeoDjango now also imports the part using gdal, even if we don't use it. So yes you should have it to avoid this error.

[sameergaikwad222]

You must install Geospatial Libraries (gdal).
Here is the guide for Ubuntu to install same.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.1/ref/contrib/gis/install/geolibs/

This issue can be closed now.

[jlesech]

Thanks. This dependency should be documented. I created a pull request for that.

[olmerg]

I recoomend to downdload the procompiled package from https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#gdal and then add the dll (for windows) in setting.py of your Django project

GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = r".venv\Lib\site-packages\osgeo\gdal301.dll"
GEOS_LIBRARY_PATH = r".venv\Lib\site-packages\osgeo\geos_c.dll"

[Gilbishkosma]

This article is useful to setup GDAL
https://www.pointsnorthgis.ca/blog/geodjango-gdal-setup-windows-10/