title: Python gdal undefined symbol GDALRasterBandGetVirtualMem
body: <p>I'm trying to use <a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/GDAL" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Python GDAL bindings</a>.  When naively installing bindings through pip, installation fails with <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com/q/21269/4904">error: 'VSIFTruncateL' was not declared in this scope</a>, probably due to a mismatch of the installed headers and the python bindings version.  The <a href="https://gis.stackexchange.com/a/23407/4904">proposed solution elsewhere</a> is to install the exact same version through pip.  However, my system has <code>gdal-1.7.3</code>, and there are no 1.7.3 bindings.  Installing <a href="https://pypi.python.org/pypi/GDAL/1.7.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1.7.1 bindings</a> leads to successful compilation, but attempting to run leads to <code>undefined symbol: GDALRasterBandGetVirtualMem</code>.  Therefore, <a href="http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/2012-April/032598.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">I installed 1.11.1 from source</a> and compiled the latest bindings against it.  Compilation and installation appears to work, but importing does not:</p>
  
  <pre><code>In [2]: import osgeo
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
  ImportError                               Traceback (most recent call last)
  &lt;ipython-input-2-26b16a6d02ad&gt; in &lt;module&gt;()
  ----&gt; 1 import osgeo
  
  /export/data/home/gholl/venv/gerrit/lib/python3.4/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py in &lt;module&gt;()
       19                 fp.close()
       20             return _mod
  ---&gt; 21     _gdal = swig_import_helper()
       22     del swig_import_helper
       23 else:
  
  /export/data/home/gholl/venv/gerrit/lib/python3.4/site-packages/osgeo/__init__.py in swig_import_helper()
       15         if fp is not None:
       16             try:
  ---&gt; 17                 _mod = imp.load_module('_gdal', fp, pathname, description)
       18             finally:
       19                 fp.close()
  
  /export/data/home/gholl/venv/gerrit/lib64/python3.4/imp.py in load_module(name, file, filename, details)
      241                 return load_dynamic(name, filename, opened_file)
      242         else:
  --&gt; 243             return load_dynamic(name, filename, file)
      244     elif type_ == PKG_DIRECTORY:
      245         return load_package(name, filename)
  
  ImportError: /export/data/home/gholl/venv/gerrit/lib/python3.4/site-packages/osgeo/_gdal.cpython-34m.so: undefined symbol: GDALRasterBandGetVirtualMem
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm at a loss now.  What else can I try to use <code>gdal</code> and its Python bindings?</p>
  
  <p>(The system is <code>Scientific Linux release 6.6 (Carbon)</code> on which I do not have system administrator access.)</p>