[Mapserver-users] Pre-basics of a Linux install?

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi Dale, glad to see you are ambitious and interested.  It's not clear how 
low you want to get into the operating system.  "Newbie" to me implies you 
would like to avoid compiling source code and running command line/shell 
setup stuff - but I've been wrong before.

With that assumption in mind I suggest you seek out a linux distribution 
that will help provide you with easily installable packages, with a 
graphical package manager, like SuSE linux and it's YAST system tool. That 
would take care of getting Apache running (and help to keep it patched 
with security updates!!).

Then when you have Apache running, it's a matter of configuring 
Mapserver...that's another matter and most likely will drop you to the 
command line and require some source code compiling.  However, the end 
goal of a recent project is to help provide an easily  "installable" 
package for Mapserver and related utilities.  MapServer isn't ready in 
that package yet, though.
More info at: http://harmeny.com/twiki/bin/view/Fgs

Tyler

mapserver-users-admin at lists.gis.umn.edu wrote on 06/28/2004 08:53:21 AM:

> Hello folks,
> 
> I've decided to take the plunge and learn to use not only MapServer,
> but also Linux as the OS. (I'm already rather familiar with ESRI
> products in Windows, and I'm anxious to learn some alternatives,
> especially for making spatial data available online.) I've been
> listening to the mapserver-users list for about a week and I've been
> reading about Linux and related topics from various sources for longer
> than that. But I remain confused! I am getting the sneaking suspicion
> that in order to really understand what is going on, I need to learn
> how to program in C.
> 
> The MapServer web page, wiki, and mailing list archives have been very
> informative, but I still have a lot of simple newbie questions that
> I'd like to ask, but which would end up swamping out this mailing
> list - especially questions that aren't directly related to MapServer
> itself. So, to start, I'd like to ask one main question:
> 
> "Where can I find good tutorials on Linux, Apache, and the basics of
> installing software that are newbie-friendly?"
> 
> By newbie-friendly, I mean things like NOT reverting to exclusive use
> of acronyms or abbreviations immediately after the first use of a new
> term (wouldn't it be nice if we all COULD learn a new language by
> simply hearing each word defined once?); a glossary would be helpful,
> especially if linked via hypertext in the tutorial; attempts to use
> "plain English" wherever possible, making the fewest assumptions
> possible about the background knowledge of the reader; a preference
> for conceptual descriptions of basic components and how they go
> together, rather than detailed information about specific components
> and their multitudes of possible settings.
> 
> I'm making progress in my own installation, but it would be nice to
> have answered such simple questions as "Does it matter which directory
> I un-tar my source code in?" and "Ok, I went through the ./configure,
> make, make install, but how do I know it worked, and how do I know
> where stuff went?" and "How do I tell what version of program/library
> X is installed?" etc., ad nauseum.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Dale Trexel
> Conservation Biology Program
> University of Minnesota
> 
> 
> 
> 
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