GDAL python bindings not liking virtualenv

[evz]

Yesterday when I was trying to set up the project on a Ubuntu VM (11.04 and later I tried 10.04), I kept running into the same issue when installing the requirements via pip. Basically, it seemed that, even though I had all the GIS libraries as well as PostgreSQL installed globally (using apt-get) the GDAL python bindings did not want to compile in the virtualenv. They complained about missing header files which I'm assuming were someplace in the VM since I had libgdal-dev installed and since I could install those bindings globally without a hitch.

I realize this is one of those things that this project doesn't have much control over but I thought I'd bring it up anyways just in case someone out there had recommendations as to how I should proceed.

[evz]

For whatever it's worth, here's what I did to get the rig running by installing everything globally within my VM:

apt-get install git-core
apt-get install python-software-properties
add-apt-repository ppa:pitti/postgresql # PPA for PostgreSQL 9.0
add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable # PPA for current GIS libs
apt-get update
apt-get install libgdal1-dev libgeos-dev proj python-dev libpq-dev postgresql-server-dev-9.0 postgresql-contrib-9.0 python-gdal mongodb mdbtools
apt-get install git-core
git clone https://github.com/ireapps/census.git
cd census/censusweb/
vi requirements.txt # Comment out GDAL line
pip install -r requirements.txt 
wget http://postgis.refractions.net/download/postgis-1.5.3.tar.gz 
tar -xvf postgis-1.5.3.tar.gz
cd postgis-1.5.3/
./configure
make
make install
su - postgres # Switch to postgres superuser
psql
### Inside pgsql shell
postgres=# create user censusweb with password 'Xy9XKembdu'; # Create new user to match the one in settings.py
postgres=# \q
### Back to bash 
psql -d postgres -c "UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate='true' WHERE datname='template_postgis';"
psql -d template_postgis -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/postgis-1.5/postgis.sql
psql -d template_postgis -f /usr/share/postgresql/9.0/contrib/postgis-1.5/spatial_ref_sys.sql
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geometry_columns TO PUBLIC;"
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geography_columns TO PUBLIC;"
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON spatial_ref_sys TO PUBLIC;"
exit # Switch back to root
python manage.py runserver