GeoDjango on Windows: Try setting GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings

Question

I've done this a dozen times before, but something isn't working this time..

Following the docs:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.11/ref/contrib/gis/install/#windows

I'm trying to set up GeoDjango on a Windows machine (this one is a virtual windows 10 set up on paperspace.com). There seems to be a problem with my PATH settings, but I can't figure out what it is. I've run the commands highlighted in the instructions. I've checked my PATH variables and everything seems ok. I've tried pointing them to both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of OSGeo4Win. Regardless, I get the following output every time:

C:\Python\lib\site-packages\floppyforms\__init__.py:21: UserWarning: Unable to import floppyforms.gis, geometry widgets not available
  "Unable to import floppyforms.gis, geometry widgets not available")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 363, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 337, in execute
    django.setup()
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\__init__.py", line 27, in setup
    apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\apps\registry.py", line 108, in populate
    app_config.import_models()
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\apps\config.py", line 202, in import_models
    self.models_module = import_module(models_module_name)
  File "C:\Python\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 978, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 961, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 950, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 655, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 205, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\models.py", line 4, in <module>
    from django.contrib.auth.base_user import AbstractBaseUser, BaseUserManager
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\auth\base_user.py", line 52, in <module>
    class AbstractBaseUser(models.Model):
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\base.py", line 124, in __new__
    new_class.add_to_class('_meta', Options(meta, app_label))
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\base.py", line 330, in add_to_class
    value.contribute_to_class(cls, name)
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\models\options.py", line 214, in contribute_to_class
    self.db_table = truncate_name(self.db_table, connection.ops.max_name_length())
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\__init__.py", line 33, in __getattr__
    return getattr(connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS], item)
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 211, in __getitem__
    backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\db\utils.py", line 115, in load_backend
    return import_module('%s.base' % backend_name)
  File "C:\Python\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\backends\postgis\base.py", line 5, in <module>
    from .features import DatabaseFeatures
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\backends\postgis\features.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.db.backends.base.features import BaseSpatialFeatures
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\backends\base\features.py", line 4, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.db.models import aggregates
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\models\__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.db.models.aggregates import *  # NOQA
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\models\aggregates.py", line 1, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.db.models.fields import ExtentField
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\db\models\fields.py", line 3, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis import forms, gdal
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\forms\__init__.py", line 3, in <module>
    from .fields import (  # NOQA
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\forms\fields.py", line 4, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.geos import GEOSException, GEOSGeometry
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\geos\__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
    from .collections import (  # NOQA
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\geos\collections.py", line 11, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.geos.geometry import GEOSGeometry, LinearGeometryMixin
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\geos\geometry.py", line 11, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis import gdal
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\gdal\__init__.py", line 28, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.datasource import DataSource
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\gdal\datasource.py", line 39, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.driver import Driver
  File "C:\Python\lib\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 "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\gdal\prototypes\ds.py", line 9, in <module>
    from django.contrib.gis.gdal.libgdal import GDAL_VERSION, lgdal
  File "C:\Python\lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\gdal\libgdal.py", line 44, in <module>
    'GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.' % '", "'.join(lib_names)
django.contrib.gis.gdal.error.GDALException: Could not find the GDAL library (tried "gdal111", "gdal110", "gdal19", "gdal18", "gdal17"). Try setting GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH in your settings.

Does anyone have any ideas?

UPDATE: I went to the store and bought a new laptop and I am still running into the same issue. Could it be an versioning issue with some of the GeoDjango dependencies? I'm at a loss for what to do, but it's kind of an emergency for me.

Answer 1

The issue ended up being a version mismatch between Django and GDAL. Django was not searching for the correct file name (gdal202.dll in my case).

Fixing it required me to add str('gdal202') to the following file on line 26:

(Python Root)\Lib\site-packages\django\contrib\gis\gdal\libgdal.py

If this issue reoccurs, you can look through your OSGeo4W\bin directory to figure out which gdalxxx.dll it is that Django needs to search for.

Answer 2

Adding

GDAL_LIBRARY_PATH = r'C:\OSGeo4W64\bin\gdal202'

to the django settings worked for me

Answer 3

In addition to the previous comments. You might have a [WinError 127] The specified procedure could not be found.

This appears due to having multiple sqlite3.dll on your system. If the path hits those first a conflict appears for gdal202.

You can extend adam starrh answers by adding also a change of working directory.

#Set working directory to actual working directoy of gdal
#This is required to prevent any conflicts with older SQLITE versions, 
#f.e. in python path  
#Prevents error in GDAL 202
#BASE_WORKINGDIRECTORY to change it back later if you need to
BASE_WORKDIRECTORY = os.getcwd()
os.chdir(os.path.dirname(lib_path))

# This loads the GDAL/OGR C library
lgdal = CDLL(lib_path)

Answer 4

If you're using the Django tutorial and installing GDAL via OSGeo4W, when modifying the Windows environment, ensure you've defined the proper Python and OSGeo4W versions.

E.g., when installing 64-bit OSGeo4W, the environment path should be set:

set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W64

and for Python 3.5.2:

set PYTHON_ROOT=C:\Python36

Be sure you're not confusing Python installations in a virtualenv with the system Python.

Only install Django after you've properly modified the environment.

Answer 5

For me this issue was solved on Windows simply by adding the path to the osgeo python package to the Environment variables (C:\Python36\Lib\site-packages\osgeo). It seems that after doing this, django managed to find the gdal202.dll file.

Answer 6

Solution:

1. Install GDAL from pip: pip install GDAL, if does not work install it from wheel: https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#gdal

2. a) If you use virtual environment just add this code to settings.py: os.environ["PATH"] += os.pathsep + BASE_DIR + '\\venv\\Lib\\site-packages\\osgeo'

   b) Else add this code:

   from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib os.environ["PATH"] += os.pathsep + get_python_lib() + '\\osgeo'

Answer 7

When makemigretions ,it appare an issue like this enter image description here

Maybe the dll(gdal202.dll) lib doesn't work. so we can replace the whole GDAL lib with GDAL-whl-package from https://download.lfd.uci.edu/pythonlibs/r5uhg2lo/GDAL-2.3.2-cp36-cp36m-win_amd64.whl download this whl package, rename it to GDAL-2.3.2-cp36-cp36m-win_amd64.whl.zip enter image description here extract the osgeo folder to one place (D:\ProgramData\osgeo) and modify the GDAL_DATA PROJ_LIB and path to it's subfolder

which means change Windows environment from

set OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\OSGeo4W
set PYTHON_ROOT=C:\Python3X
set GDAL_DATA=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\share\gdal
set PROJ_LIB=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\share\proj
set PATH=%PATH%;%PYTHON_ROOT%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v Path /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PATH%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v GDAL_DATA /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%GDAL_DATA%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PROJ_LIB /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PROJ_LIB%"

to

set OSGEO4W_ROOT=D:\ProgramData\osgeo
set PYTHON_ROOT=C:\Python3X
set GDAL_DATA=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\data\gdal
set PROJ_LIB=%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\data\proj
set PATH=%PATH%;%PYTHON_ROOT%;%OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v Path /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PATH%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v GDAL_DATA /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%GDAL_DATA%"
reg ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" /v PROJ_LIB /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /f /d "%PROJ_LIB%"

PS : Don't forget to rename "D:\ProgramData\osgeo\gdal203.dll" to "D:\ProgramData\osgeo\gdal202.dll"