Install GDAL 2.3 with ECW support on Ubuntu 18.04

gdal_ecw.sh

#!/bin/bash

##
## Tested on: Ubuntu 18.04 & ECW 5.4 & GDAL 2.3.1
##

## Download the ERDAS ECW JP2 SDK v5.4 Linux
## https://download.hexagongeospatial.com/downloads/ecw/erdas-ecw-jp2-sdk-v5-4-linux

## Download GDAL v2.3 Source (ex. 2.3.1)
## http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/DownloadSource

## First remove gdal if it's already installed
sudo apt remove gdal-bin gdal-data libgdal20
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install libpng-dev

## Unzip ECW libraries and install.
## At the menu, select 1 for "Desktop Read-Only Redistributable"
unzip erdas-ecw-sdk-5.4.0-linux.zip
chmod +x ERDAS_ECWJP2_SDK-5.4.0.bin
./ERDAS_ECWJP2_SDK-5.4.0.bin

## Copy new libraries to system folder
## Rename the newabi library as x64 and move necessary libraries to /usr/local/lib
sudo cp -r ~/hexagon/ERDAS-ECW_JPEG_2000_SDK-5.4.0/Desktop_Read-Only /usr/local/hexagon
sudo rm -r /usr/local/hexagon/lib/x64
sudo mv /usr/local/hexagon/lib/newabi/x64 /usr/local/hexagon/lib/x64
sudo cp /usr/local/hexagon/lib/x64/release/libNCSEcw* /usr/local/lib
sudo ldconfig /usr/local/hexagon

## Build GDAL with ECW support
unzip gdal-2.3.1.zip
cd gdal-2.3.1

./configure --with-ecw=/usr/local/hexagon
make clean
make
sudo make install

## Check if it works
gdalinfo --formats | grep ECW

## Remove installation files
sudo rm -rf ~/hexagon/

echo "SKO BUFFS!"

Hi there,

Thanks a lot for this, I followed the steps thoroughly and everything went fine until "make clean", which got me into an infinite loop.

I'm no programmer, as you might have guessed already, just looking to work on some .ecw maps in GRASS and stay away from Windows.

Would you have some time to give me a hand?

Best,
Kevin

Thanks for all proposed scripts and solutions above. Unlucky for me, I also got stuck in the infinite loop. I had to force quit that running terminal process. After that, existing gdal running on qgis can no longer work. Then I had to follow instruction on this : https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/BuildingOnUnix, , follow the "system install" section (it took me around 1 hour to execute that "make" line with machine getting hot), and export path (3 lines) as in the "install in non-root directory" section, in order to return back to original working gdal that still does not support ECW.

Update:
in order to return to normal working gdal with qgis, before self-compiling normal gdal source like I said above, try reinstalling first: , and then set path to default apt installation location (in my case: ). If this does not work, perhaps should proceed to self-compiling gdal again as above mentioned.

i am not able to create the make command

@indimedigit run this command to install make and all the packages needed to build your code:

sudo apt-get install build-essential