Cannot install gdal or osgeo using .venv - error: legacy-install-failure

Question

I know there are many questions about this issue , hence, I couldn't find working solution yet so I'm trying here as well...

I have cloned a git repo which one of the requiremed package there is to have gdal installed. The computer is Linux and I use vs code to connect reomtly.
at the beginning I naively tried to install gdal with:

pip install gdal

and then with :

pip install osgeo

and also :

pip install GDAL==3.3.2

but all gave me the same error:

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip. error: legacy-install-failure

× Encountered error while trying to install package. ╰─> GDAL

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.

Things I have tried to do :

1. follow this instructions , everything run well beside the part of the actual gdal installing which failed (Same error)
2. install Fiona before - didn't change anything (pip install fiona)
3. install pygdal - got the same error
4. use pip freeze to copy another environment that I have that has gdal working there (I don't remember how I made it work last time) - same error, doesn't install it.... 5.Trying to install osgeo_utils ...same results...same error

Weird thing is that when I print this on cmd:

>>>ogrinfo --version
GDAL 3.3.2, released 2021/09/01

which seems like it is already installed, so maybe I can find where is it lcoated?

in the end of the day I would like to be able to import gdal, this way:

from osgeo_utils import gdal_pansharpen

I know I can try maybe with conda but I am afraid it will create other bugs with the environment as it is cloned.

so, my goal is to be able to import gdal and use it in my notebooks :)

Edit: more info:

Linux distribution and version: Zorin OS 16.1

Created environment:

~/git/demo$ python3.10 -m venv .venv
...
~/git/demo$ pip install -r requirments.txt

I hope this information is good enough. Just to add more info - I found out the gdal is installed somewhere on the same OS but I couldn't use pip to install it and use it in python.

Answer 1

As you already have GDAL installed, just let your virtual env use it by adding the --system-site-packages flag.

python -m venv --system-site-packages .venv

And just to show it works:

.venv/bin/python -c "from osgeo import gdal; print(gdal.__version__)"
3.4.1

.venv/bin/python -c "from osgeo_utils import gdal_pansharpen; print(gdal_pansharpen)"
<module 'osgeo_utils.gdal_pansharpen' from '/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/osgeo_utils/gdal_pansharpen.py'>

And if you don't have GDAL already installed:

sudo apt install gdal-bin python3-gdal