rgdal installation error: How to set GDAL_DATA directory?

Question

I've long had GDAL, proj, etc. installed and working fine for various other related software (e.g., QGIS). Unfortunately, every time R gets updated it tends to lose links to previously installed R libraries. I'm used to this, just a little annoyed, and I try to re-install rgdal. However, it doesn't work this time.

> install.packages('rgdal')
Installing package into ‘/home/arthur/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.5’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/rgdal_1.4-3.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 1687331 bytes (1.6 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 1.6 MB

* installing *source* package ‘rgdal’ ...
** package ‘rgdal’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
configure: R_HOME: /usr/lib/R
configure: CC: gcc -std=gnu99
configure: CXX: g++
configure: C++11 support available
configure: rgdal: 1.4-3
checking for /usr/bin/svnversion... yes
configure: svn revision: 828
checking for gdal-config... /usr/bin/gdal-config
checking gdal-config usability... yes
configure: GDAL: 2.2.3
checking GDAL version >= 1.11.4... yes
checking GDAL version <= 2.5.0... yes
checking gdal: linking with --libs only... yes
checking GDAL: gdal-config data directory readable... no
checking GDAL: GDAL_DATA data directory readable... configure: error: GDAL data directory not found.
ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘rgdal’
* removing ‘/home/arthur/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.5/rgdal’

The downloaded source packages are in
    ‘/tmp/RtmpdZ7ZWN/downloaded_packages’
Warning message:
In install.packages("rgdal") :
  installation of package ‘rgdal’ had non-zero exit status

Searches online aren't very helpful because most users reporting this kind of error actually didn't have GDAL or a related dependency installed. This problem cropped up on Ubuntu GNU/Linux 18.04 with GDAL version 2.2.3 and R version 3.5.2.

Answer 1

Luckily, I was able to figure this out. It is necessary to set the GDAL_DATA directory in the same terminal session, open R, then install rgdal.

Set the GDAL_DATA environmental variable:

GDAL_DATA=/usr/share/gdal/

Location will vary by system; another good guess is /usr/local/share/gdal/. You should use find to locate your directory.

Then, in the same session, open R at the command line with R and install rgdal:

install.packages('rgdal')