[GRASSLIST:1089] Re: Looking for a guru...

[Buchan Milne]

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Bill Dickinson Jr wrote:

> I ran into a lot of problems with Postgresql, so I decided to try MySQL
> as the database. The MySQL install went smoothly, though I did start
> running into problems with getting GRASS to talk to MySQL properly. I am
> currently at the point where both GRASS and MySQL are installed, but I
> can't use GRASS yet because I haven't found the right approach to make
> them work together - GRASS can't use or write to the MySQL database
> folders yet.
>

Do you absolutely need to use a database right now? It may be best to
get started with grass with grass's native files instead, before getting
database support working.

> I have done a decent amount of surfing on the web and it seems like all
> the working installations of GRASS are on Linux boxes. With each problem
> I had I found other people who had similar problems trying to install
> GRASS on OS X, which leads to a lack of confidence that this is an easy
> thing to do at this point.
>
> There is always the option of OpenOSX's GRASS CD, but I don't currently
> have any money at work for purchasing software. NASA uses ESRI's ArcGIS
> as it's "official" GIS solution, but I have been trying to show that
> there is another option that would work just as well as ESRI without the
> ridiculous cost - another reason that I have been trying to install
> without paying for anything.
>
> I *want* to use my Mac as my primary GIS application platform, but the
> only reason I am still beating my head against this wall is because I am
> just plain stubborn. ;-)  ESRI leaves me stranded on a Wintel machine,
> but the Mac is a better platform - if I could just get the damned
> software working correctly.

The Mac, or OSX (we need to know what your requirement is, you seem to
equate Mac with OSX).

>
> Overall, at this point in time, I wouldn't recommend relying on GRASS on
> a Mac as your GIS solution.

Hmm, you imply that MacOSX is the only operating system that runs on a
Mac. AFAIK, Mandrake 9.1 for PPC includes grass. I am not sure, I don't
have any PPC boxes, I maintain the grass package though, and there are
recent packages for Mandrake cooker ppc in contrib:

ftp://mandrake.redbox.cz/Mandrake-devel/contrib/ppc/grass-5.0.2-1mdk.ppc.rpm

> Or if you do, also budget for OpenOSX's
> GRASS cd-rom as it does have a limited amount of technical support that
> may make the difference in getting everything working quickly. Maybe in
> another 6-12 months doing a self-install of GRASS will work better, but
> right now it is an uphill struggle.


- --
|--------------Another happy Mandrake Club member--------------|
Buchan Milne                Mechanical Engineer, Network Manager
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