diff -up src/sage/env.py.orig src/sage/env.py
--- src/sage/env.py.orig	2019-01-14 17:16:02.000000000 -0700
+++ src/sage/env.py	2019-02-07 16:11:38.887417503 -0700
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ _add_variable_or_fallback('CONWAY_POLYNO
 _add_variable_or_fallback('GRAPHS_DATA_DIR',  opj('$SAGE_SHARE','graphs'))
 _add_variable_or_fallback('ELLCURVE_DATA_DIR',opj('$SAGE_SHARE','ellcurves'))
 _add_variable_or_fallback('POLYTOPE_DATA_DIR',opj('$SAGE_SHARE','reflexive_polytopes'))
-_add_variable_or_fallback('GAP_ROOT_DIR',     opj('$SAGE_SHARE','gap'))
+_add_variable_or_fallback('GAP_ROOT_DIR',     opj('/usr','lib','gap'))
 _add_variable_or_fallback('THEBE_DIR',        opj('$SAGE_SHARE','thebe'))
 _add_variable_or_fallback('COMBINATORIAL_DESIGN_DATA_DIR', opj('$SAGE_SHARE', 'combinatorial_designs'))
 _add_variable_or_fallback('CREMONA_MINI_DATA_DIR', opj('$SAGE_SHARE', 'cremona'))
diff -up src/sage/libs/gap/util.pyx.orig src/sage/libs/gap/util.pyx
--- src/sage/libs/gap/util.pyx.orig	2019-01-14 17:16:03.000000000 -0700
+++ src/sage/libs/gap/util.pyx	2019-02-07 16:13:52.658939819 -0700
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import os
 import signal
 import warnings
 
+from posix.dlfcn cimport dlopen, dlclose, RTLD_NOW, RTLD_GLOBAL
 from libc.string cimport strcpy, strlen
 
 from cpython.exc cimport PyErr_SetObject, PyErr_Occurred, PyErr_Fetch
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ def gap_root():
 
         sage: from sage.libs.gap.util import gap_root
         sage: gap_root()   # random output
-        '/home/vbraun/opt/sage-5.3.rc0/local/gap/latest'
+        '/usr/lib/gap'
     """
     if os.path.exists(sage.env.GAP_ROOT_DIR):
         return sage.env.GAP_ROOT_DIR
@@ -259,6 +260,18 @@ cdef initialize():
     global _gap_is_initialized, environ
     if _gap_is_initialized: return
 
+    # Hack to ensure that all symbols provided by libgap are loaded into the
+    # global symbol table
+    # Note: we could use RTLD_NOLOAD and avoid the subsequent dlclose() but
+    # this isn't portable
+    cdef void* handle
+    handle = dlopen("libgap.so", RTLD_NOW | RTLD_GLOBAL)
+    if handle == NULL:
+        raise RuntimeError(
+                "Could not dlopen() libgap.so even though it should already "
+                "be loaded!")
+    dlclose(handle)
+
     # Define argv and environ variables, which we will pass in to
     # initialize GAP. Note that we must pass define the memory pool
     # size!