Issues enabling MrSID support in GDAL/GeoServer

GeoServer GeoServer User
,
1

Hello all,

I’m trying to enable MrSID support in GeoServer via GDAL, but so far the driver is not showing up. I’ll describe the environment and what I’ve tried:

Environment:

  • OS: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6

  • GDAL: 3.8.3 (compiled from source)

  • GeoServer: running on Tomcat with Java 11

  • MrSID DSDK: 9.5.5.5244 (rhel9.x86-64.gcc1131) installed in /opt/MrSID/current

What I’ve done so far:

  1. Compiled GDAL 3.8.3 with the following CMake flags:

-DGDAL_USE_MRSID=ON
-DGDAL_ENABLE_DRIVER_MRSID_PLUGIN=ON
-DMRSID_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/MrSID/current/Raster_DSDK/include
-DMRSID_LIBRARY=/opt/MrSID/current/Raster_DSDK/lib/libltidsdk.so
-DGDAL_BUILD_OPTIONAL_DRIVERS=ON
-DGDAL_ENABLE_PLUGINS=ON

  1. Build completed successfully, and strings /usr/local/lib64/libgdal.so shows multiple MrSID references (e.g., GDALRegister_MrSID).

  2. Verified with ldd that libgdal.so is now linked to: /opt/MrSID/current/Raster_DSDK/lib/libltidsdk.so

  3. Configured Tomcat with: -Djava.library.path=/usr/local/lib64/jni:/opt/MrSID/current/Raster_DSDK/lib and confirmed that LD_LIBRARY_PATH includes the MrSID lib directory.

  4. Restarted Tomcat and tested with both gdalinfo --formats and gdalinfo file.sid, but the MrSID driver still does not show up.

    Problem:

    Although GDAL seems to be compiled with MrSID support, gdalinfo --formats does not list MrSID, and consequently GeoServer does not expose it either.

    Question:
    Has anyone successfully compiled and enabled MrSID with GDAL ≥ 3.8.x and GeoServer/Tomcat on SLES 15?
    Am I missing a step to ensure the driver is registered and recognized at runtime?

    Any insights would be very welcome.

    Thanks in advance,
    Fernando Quadro

2

Hi,

If gdalinfo –formats does not list the MRSid driver, then there is something wrong with the build and you should stop doing any other tests because they will fail. You can ask help for building GDAL with MRSid driver from the gdal-dev mailing list. The driver page MrSID -- Multi-resolution Seamless Image Database — GDAL documentation does not have much information about building. For my mind a better option than trying to use MRSid files with Geoserver (or any other program) is to get rid of MRSid and convert the files into GeoTIFF format. But for that you need GDAL with a working MRSid driver. For example the binaries from https://gisinternals.com/ come with MRSid support.

-Jukka Rahkonen-

3

Thanks for your help, Jukka. I’m emailing gdal-devel to see what they can tell me.

If I find a solution, I’ll post it back here.

Best regards,

Fernando Quadro

4

Jukka,

Thanks for the tip. Michael Smith suggested I update the GDAL version and use Ninja to compile. I did, and it worked.

Best regards,

Fernando Quadro

5

Could you take a moment to add that information to the documentation page (there’s an edit button on right hand side)

Cheers

Ian

6

Ian,

How are you? Where can I write a post with this GDAL + MrSID configuration I created (sorry, I didn’t see the button you mentioned).

Best regards,

Fernando Quadro

7

Ian,

I wrote the step-by-step solution (it’s still in Brazilian Portuguese), I’ll see if I can translate it into English.

https://www.fernandoquadro.com.br/html/2025/10/14/compilar-o-gdal-com-mrsid-no-suse-linux/

8

Where can I write a post with this GDAL + MrSID configuration I created (sorry, I didn’t see the button you mentioned).

It is not really a button but a link. See the image below. The link points to the GitHub repository where the documentation is maintained. There you can make edits into your own fork and then suggest that the edits would be included in the official documentation by creating a pull request. The process is more easy that it may feel, just try it.

-Jukka Rahkonen-

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9

A possibly simpler solution than struggling for ages to build GDAL bindings is to use the GeoServer Docker image (-gdal) which has automated this build process for you.

e.g.

Peter