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Risk of stumbling with QGIS 2.6 (Linux) ESRI FileGeodatabase support

Yesterday I had stumbled on the ESRI FileGeodatabase (FGDB) support in QGIS. I used a new QGIS 2.6 installation on Kubuntu 14.04.1 from the ” http://qgis.org/debian” repo – and had NO FGDB-support 🙁  … after some investigation-work I had a solution.

With Ubuntu 14.10 it’s a pain in the neck – ubuntugis delivers GDAL 1.10.1 and not 1.11 – so no OpenFileGDB support…

The solution:

If you want to open an ESRI FileGeodatabase in QGIS 2.6 installed on Ubuntu 14.04.1 you have to install it from the ubuntugis repo (http://qgis.org/de/site/forusers/alldownloads.html#ubuntu)

ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable

How to add data from a FileGeodatabase ? “Add Vector data” – “directory” – Source type “FileGDB”

After installing it from “ubuntugis” I recognized FGDB-support – but slightly different from my QGIS-Windows-installation and old 2.4-installation:

  • Source-Type: OpenFileGDB (and not ESRI FGDB)

QGIS26_ubuntugis_OpenGDB

I tried to open a FeatureClass from a FGDB – it worked ! After some minutes testing I recognized the first limitations compared to the “ESRI FGDB”-connector:

  • I was not able to edit the FC
  • If you want to save a vector layer as a FGDB it also does not work
  • …

Now I had a look on my Windows-QGIS-Installation:

  • I can choose between OpenFileGDB and ESRI FGDB connector
  • With ESRI FGDB connector editing works and you can save a vector-layer as a FGDB

2014_11_19_08_45_22_QGIS_2.4.0_Chugiak

It looks like that in ubuntugis-repo GDAL is not compiled with ESRI FGDB-support (only with OpenFGDB-support). So I will try to compile GDAL myself. But for my actual purpose the OpenFGD-connector worked fine, it supported 2.5D FeatureClasses for GPX-exports.

QGIS27_ubuntugis_OpenGDB

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