[Live-demo] Re: Fwd: OSGEO Live 5 USB Distribution testing

Tue Nov 8 18:14:38 PST 2011

osgeo-live people,

Erik, CCed, has provided valuable feedback describing his experience 
using OSGeo-Live. Thanks Erik.

On 9/11/2011 12:12 PM, Erik Lash wrote:
>
> Hi Cameron,
>
> Please feel free to post my comments to the list.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Erik Lash
>
> *From:*Cameron Shorter [mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com]
> *Sent:* Monday, November 07, 2011 2:46 AM
> *To:* Helena Mitasova
> *Cc:* Hamish; Erik Lash
> *Subject:* Re: Fwd: OSGEO Live 5 USB Distribution testing
>
> Thanks for the feedback Helena and Erik,
> Do you mind if we forward this email onto our osgeo-live email list so 
> that we can share this feedback with others, which hopefully can lead 
> to an improved osgeo-live?
>
> On 7/11/2011 3:50 PM, Helena Mitasova wrote:
>
> Cameron,
>
> I am not sure whether this would be useful for the next version of 
> OSGEO-Live, but I gave the USB
>
> that I got in Denver to one of my students (MS Windows user) to try it 
> out on his own as is.
>
> (he knows GDAL and GRASS but not much linux).
>
> Below is summary of his experience (he might not have used it the way 
> it was indented to be used),
>
> but note #6 which worked very well.
>
> <snip>
>
> Feel free to contact Eric Lash directly if you have any questions,
>
> Helena
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>
>
> *From: *"Erik Lash" <elash at ncsu.edu <mailto:elash at ncsu.edu>>
>
> *Date: *October 10, 2011 9:12:32 AM EDT
>
> *To: *"Helena Mitasova" <hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu 
> <mailto:hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu>>
>
> *Cc: *<elash at ncsu.edu <mailto:elash at ncsu.edu>>
>
> *Subject: OSGEO Live 5 USB Distribution testing*
>
> Hi Dr. Mitasova,
>
> I've spent some time playing around with the OSGEO Live system this 
> weekend. (learning a lot about Linux)
>
> I've installed it on my 64 bit Windows server as a virtual drive and 
> on my Windows laptop as a dual boot operating system and attempted to 
> use the use the USB distribution. I'll be doing my homework for this 
> week on it.
>
> The USB installation has proved too cumbersome for easy use alongside 
> my current implementations of Windows and Windows Server and needs to 
> be tweaked a bit before it's something that will be readily accessible 
> to the normal student.
>
> Six significant issues of feedback that I've noted so far are:
>
> 1)Documentation is not well formatted or easy to find if one is not 
> already familiar with Linux. I spent much time searching online forums 
> this weekend to find answers to_basic use questions_like ->/"how does 
> one tweak display settings in XFce?" and "how does one connect to a 
> network drive"/. A good set of instructions and a useful FAQ that 
> addresses basic computer integration tasks needs to be included on the 
> desktop with the USB distribution (and the other ones as well).
>
> 2)Network drives are not easily supported and the auto-mount features 
> don't seem to work without significant tweaking over the network. I 
> keep my data and documents on a separate network drive (for security 
> and backup purposes) at home just like at the University. Setting up 
> the OSGEO Live distribution to work with my network seems an almost 
> insurmountable task (to this Linux novice/newbie) and I've had to move 
> my documents to a portable USB stick to do my homework.
>
> a.What would be great would be to have a feature that allows for the 
> installation to remember and automatically mount network directories 
> after reboot. Instead all I can figure out is how to set them up 
> manually each time I start the system...not efficient and somewhat 
> time consuming.
>
> 3)_Monitors -- Monitors -- Monitors_: Still don't have this one 
> figured out...I use multiple monitors with all my computers. I've 
> tried to install and use some of the add on packages and have followed 
> the directions from OSGEO for this but I still_cannot_get the OSGEO 
> Live distribution to extend my desktop onto a second monitor (or 
> resize correctly on one screen). The default seems to be for it to 
> mirror to a second monitor which is almost useless for someone like me 
> who uses the space on the second monitor for other programs.
>
> a.This is probably the most annoying issue of all...I can't function 
> without multiple monitors. It's how I prefer to work.
>
> *4)*Among its other problems the USB drive installation is too big for 
> the USB drive. Can't update it, add data, or add features because its 
> native distribution fills up the USB drive almost completely. It's 
> just too cumbersome and bulky for ease of use. Not very much use for a 
> class like MEA 792 where we create and use a lot of data and often 
> need to add features to software*à****_I've given up trying to use the 
> USB installation and have found that the both the dual boot and 
> virtual installs work much better._*
>
> 5)*_Installing OSGEO Live to dual boot with Windows is really really  
> really buggy and not easily accomplished without significant 
> effort._*Documentation is not adequate and it took me several attempts 
> and system restores to get it right. Now that I have it working, 
> though, it's great.
>
> a.Primary problem in setup was that the user login is incorrect -> 
> calls for lowercase letters only but the OSGEO Live default uses 
> uppercase letters. It gets stuck in a loop and a hard boot is required 
> to interrupt the setup process.
>
> i.Had to install it once, hard boot out of the error, then was 
> presented with a user login screen during the next attempt that 
> allowed me to create a new user for the install with lowercase 
> lettering. That allowed me to finish the installation.
>
> b.Secondary problems included conflicts with Windows disk management 
> when trying to manually configure partitions (both existing partitions 
> and new ones).
>
> i.Solution was to make the entire hard drive a single Windows 
> partition in windows then install using the "alongside windows" 
> feature that automatically repartitions windows space.
>
> ii.This would have been a real BIG issue if I had data on another hard 
> drive for example a standard configuration: [ c:\Install, d:\Data ]. 
> Instead I have a local network that I use so I was afforded the luxury 
> of only having a single partition on my laptop. However, I usually do 
> multi-partition my drives for organization, backup, and security reasons.
>
> c.A tertiary problem was that the OSGEO installation sets Unbuntu as 
> the default OS and I didn't want that. I still plan to use Windows 
> first and select the OSGEO drive primarily for doing my homework.
>
> i.I used a recovery to restore the MBR to Windows default and EasyBCD 
> to configure a second boot option to manually select the GRUB 
> menu...now it automatically boots Windows unless I select the OSGEO 
> install.
>
> 6)*_Installing OSGEO Live to VirtualBox was super easy with both the 
> vmdk and ISO_**.*It works super good as a virtual machine. ISO 
> installation of a new OS  seems to work better than the vmdk as it 
> allows for custom installation from scratch. The only major issue was 
> getting the network drives mounted (these include drives on the local 
> machine because a virtual drive acts as a separate machine) and shares 
> had to be set up. But now I can remote to it from my laptop and even 
> from out of my house through my home VPN...can even connect to it from 
> campus if I want...just like an NCSU VCL installation but hosted at my 
> own house.
>
> -Erik
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     I just thought you might be interested in this.
>
>     I run OSGEO as a headless installation for remoting in from my
>     laptop attached to a second monitor (OSGEO L 5 gets a monitor by
>     itself and Windows stays on the other monitor for access to all my
>     Windows softare)...was a bit tricky to figure out how to do it but
>     it turned out to be quite simple in the end. There are other ways
>     to do this but the vbs method fit my needs perfectly.
>
>     I use a vbs script on the server...
>
>     '=====================================
>
>     Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
>
>     obj = WshShell.Run("C:\Progra~1\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe
>     -s OSGEO_L5_Standard", 0)
>
>     set WshShell = Nothing
>
>     '=====================================
>
>     Voila...use Windows standard remote desktop interface to connect
>     to the process from any Windows machine (or another remote desktop
>     interface from some other OS).
>
>     -Erik
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>   
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

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