[Live-demo] [OSGeo-Discuss] Mass production of OSGeo Live USB - any SMEs providing this ?

Jim Klassen jklassen at sharedgeo.org
Thu Apr 20 09:31:42 PDT 2017 

That wiki page is woefully out of date (seems last update for OSGeo Live
6.5).  I'm not sure how to coherently add onto that.

I follow the instructions using the Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator to
create the initial image (so I can fill up unused space with a
persistent storage file -- we have generally used 8GB USB3 thumb drives).

I have no idea if my copy_usb duplicator program is "production ready"
or not other than it has worked well for me on multiple occasions for
creating/updating OSGeo Live USB on about 100 sticks each time to hand
out at conferences.  It is faster than running dd or the "Startup Disk
Creator" for each stick and it doesn't require prior knowledge of the
state of the stick like whatever the other tool was that I was looking
at before I decided to write my own.  I presume it might be useful for
others (and that's why I published it on GitHub), but I haven't heard of
anyone else using it.  I know it is very Linux (and possibly Debian)
specific for compiling and running.

I don't know what will work for others, just sharing what has worked for me.

On 04/18/2017 03:47 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:

> Hi James, others,
>
> Yes, please do share any tips, tricks and tools you have worked out re
> USB creation (and other tips) in our wiki. A starting point for
> collecting USB ideas is here:
>
> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc_Quick_Start_for_USB
>
> And if you have ideas which are "production ready", we should include
> them in our main OSGeo-Live Quickstart:
> https://live.osgeo.org/en/quickstart/usb_quickstart.html
>
> Thanks,
> Cameron
>
> On 19/4/17 1:02 am, James Klassen wrote:
>> Not sure if it is useful to others but I wrote a program [1] to help
>> me when Bob wants a bunch of OSGeo-Live thumb drives created.  It
>> isn't by any means perfect or 100% foolproof but it sure makes the
>> job quicker for me.
>>
>> It takes an image and waits for USBs of the same size to be inserted,
>> then copys the difference between the image and the drive (this is
>> quicker as reads are much faster than writes on the thumb drives I
>> have seen).  It handles multiple thumb drives at a time, so after
>> starting it, it is just down to changing out drives for new ones as
>> they finish copying.
>>
>> I make the image running OSGeo Live in KVM and let it build a virtual
>> USB at the size of the drives I have on hand.  It can help to have
>> the image on a tmpfs to avoid the source being a bottleneck.
>>
>> [1] https://github.com/klassenjs/copy_usb
>> <https://github.com/klassenjs/copy_usb>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 18, 2017 9:49 AM, "Suchith Anand"
>> <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk
>> <mailto:Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>> wrote:
>>
>>     OSGeo Live is one of the excellent success stories of OSGeo and
>>     it is important as a community we need to pool our
>>     ideas/resources for not only keeping building upon this but
>>     expanding for the future. Hence i put this in the wider lists to
>>     stimulate ideas. For example at the recent RDA meetings in
>>     Barcelona , i started pushing for getting sponsors to fund
>>     dedicate staff time for OSGeo Live educational materials for UN
>>     and other training/capacity development needs  [1] and i will
>>     keep pushing this through all my contacts .
>>
>>
>>     The ideas put by Brian are excellent for the industry/SME
>>     ecosystem of OSGeo to start exploring and expanding. For example
>>     Cloud service(s) version of OSGeo. Time for online version of
>>     QGIS has come (it will be better than Arcgisonline or other
>>     properitery ones). QGISOnline will be a true open platform .
>>
>>     Suchith
>>
>>
>>     [1]
>>     http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/live-demo/2017-March/012009.html
>>     <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/live-demo/2017-March/012009.html>
>>
>>
>>     ________________________________________
>>     From: Live-demo <live-demo-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
>>     <mailto:live-demo-bounces at lists.osgeo.org>> on behalf of Bas
>>     Couwenberg <sebastic at xs4all.nl <mailto:sebastic at xs4all.nl>>
>>     Sent: 18 April 2017 3:19 PM
>>     To: OSGeo Discussions; live-demo
>>     Subject: Re: [Live-demo] Mass production of OSGeo Live USB - any
>>     SMEs providing this ?
>>
>>     On 2017-04-18 15:55, Basques, Bob (CI-StPaul) wrote:
>>     > Just to add to the mix, and stir the pot somewhat, an idea to
>>     consider
>>     > on this . . . what about . . .
>>     >
>>     > having some sort of support stack/infrastructure in place for
>>     > providing the OSGeo-Live as a bunch of different devices and
>>     > (portable) services.  For example,
>>     >
>>     >
>>     >   *   Generating the Thumb Drives
>>     >      *   These should be generated as needed, based on our usage
>>     > locally for different events.  When we don’t end up using some
>>     of them
>>     > at a particular event, we end up re-writing them with the newer
>>     > version of OSGeo-Live for the next event.  Not really an
>>     economically
>>     > sound model.
>>     >   *   Setting up something like a Raspberry Pi with OSGeo-Live.
>>     > Possibly for resale, certainly as a download for other to install.
>>     >   *   Setting up a Cloud (OSGE Certified?!) version of OSGe-Live
>>     >   *   As has been mentioned before, an application picker for
>>     > installation of software would go a long ways.
>>     >      *   There’s a bit of effort required for this one I’ll
>>     grant you,
>>     > but it would certainly go along was toward promoting OSGeo.
>>     >   *   Cloud service(s) version of OSGeo.
>>     >   *   Setting up a Docker . . .
>>     >
>>     > Well you get the idea,  if your going to pay for something, may as
>>     > well go for broke.  You end up with a one stop shop and possibly a
>>     > container of sorts for other projects to add in their own dedicated
>>     > versions of the same sort of devices/services.
>>
>>     Are you volunteering to implement any of the above?
>>
>>     These are good suggestions, but without people to do the work it will
>>     never materialize.
>>
>>     OSGeo-Live is understaffed as it is, see also:
>>
>>      
>>     http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/live-demo/2017-April/012031.html
>>     <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/live-demo/2017-April/012031.html>
>>
>>
>>     Kind Regards,
>>
>>     Bas
>>     _______________________________________________
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>>     http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc
>>     <http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc>
>>
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>
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> M +61 419 142 254
>
>
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