Live GIS Disc

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OSGeo Live provides bootable ISO-Images and Virtual Machines which allow users to try out fully-operational versions of popular Free Geospatial Software without the need to install a thing. Everything is set up for you ready to go: just reboot into it, glance at the help pages on the desktop, and go. The existing hard drive and operating system will not be modified in any way, everything happens in temporary system memory. As such it will run a bit slower than the "real thing" and you may want to grab a USB flash drive to save or transfer files with. You can load and boot a live-image completely from a USB stick too if you prefer.

We do this in large part by maintaining automated build scripts which collect many OSGeo programs and sample data-sets together, and then combine them to form the Live disc or VM itself. By tweaking these scripts, users are free to make their own custom distributions, for example localized in their own language and with local map data.

The Arramagong Live DVD & VM contains a collection of the best Geospatial Open Source, pre-configured with sample data. The DVD and Virtual Machine are available for download at http://live.osgeo.org/en/download.html . Refer to Live GIS Disc Quick Start to get started.

Key Links

Quick Start

How to add a project to OSGeoLive

Including OSGeo-Live at your event

This is the process to follow if you wish to make use of OSGeo-Live at your conference, workshop or similar event:

Tell Us
Add your event to our Live GIS History page and tell us how you would like to use OSGeo-Live on our email list (or email Cameron Shorter directly). Hearing how OSGeo-Live is used motivates us to keep going, and we plan releases around upcoming events.
Presentation
Conference attendees appreciate the OSGeo-Live Lightning Overview, which explains the breadth of OSGeo software. It is often presented by one of the conference organisors, or keynote speakers. You may wish to find a suitable speaker from the OSGeo Advocate list. The presentation may be given as is, or modified to align with time constraints, presenter's interest, or conference focus. (For prior variants, see Live GIS Presentation.)
Handing out DVDs or USBs
OSGeo-Live DVDs and/or USBs are often handed out to all conference delegates, or a smaller number handed out from an OSGeo booth. DVDs are cheaper (around $2 per copy), but USBs provide a better experience as they are faster to boot up and run. You will need to:
  1. Work out how to pay for the USBs/DVDs. Usually the price is factored into event budgets. This means you will require commitment from the event Organisors. However you may find an external sponsor, or for smaller print runs, you might find volunteers to print from their computers.
  2. Source a local printer, preferably local. Printers typically require 2 weeks to do the print run, although they often will turn around faster if you pay more money.
  3. Printing DVDs: The printer will require an ISO image, and artwork for the DVD face and DVD sleeve. You may make use of existing artwork or create your own.
  4. Printing USBs: A 4 Gig USB is required for osgeo-live-mini (8 Gig if you wish the full image with windows and mac installers). The process for installing USBs is described here. Note that it is important to ask the printer if they can create bootable USBs. (We have found that many printers are not familiar with the process). It is prudent to check the first USB that is printed before printing the rest. You can also print a logo on the USB.
Workshops
For workshops, we recommend using OSGeo-Live from a Virtual Machine or from a USB. Note that some computers can't boot from a USB. OSGeo-Live on a DVD is slow and as such is not recommended for workshops. However it is wise to have a few spare DVDs in case one of your computers can't boot from the USB. Note that OSGeo-Live we have heard some issues when running on Apple Macs, so if using Macs, please test first.

Build Process

Package List

Documentation

Live_GIS_Add_Project#Documentation

Stable release: http://live.osgeo.org

Nightly build: http://adhoc.osgeo.osuosl.org/livedvd/docs/en/index.html

Translate

Artwork

You can find the artwork sleeves, background images, booklet at:


Version 4.5

Review

Live GIS Review

Presentation

Live GIS Presentation

Workshops with OSGeoLive

Workshops with OSGeoLive

Schedule

Contact Us

The mailing list is archived at Gmane and Nabble

Downloads

Latest Stable Release: http://live.osgeo.org/en/download.html

Latest Development Release: http://live.osgeo.org/dev/build

Older Releases: http://download.osgeo.org/livedvd

Issue Tracker

Our issue tracker is hosted at OSGeo's Trac system, and you will need to create an OSGeo UserId before you can login and edit issues. To distinguish the LiveDVD project from other OSGeo projects, use the following conventions:

Component field
Set to `LiveDVD`
Keywords
Version: Set to base release version: eg: 5.0, 5.5 (not 5.5rc1)
Application: Set to application with issue (use lower case): eg: "geoserver"
List of open tickets

OSGeo User Id

Subversion

Repository
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk and web view
  • On Linux systems: access Subversion using:
svn checkout https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk
  • On MS Windows systems, install Tortoise Subversion, which extends Windows Explorer to include subversion commands.
Commit access
To get commit access, you need to create yourself an osgeo user id, then join our email list and ask to be given access to subversion. In this email, you will also need to confirm that you will comply with our license guidelines. Write something like:
"Hi all, I'd like to contribute XXX to OSGeo-Live. Could I please get access to subversion. My osgeo-user id is: YYYY.
I confirm that my contributions to OSGeo-Live will be compatible with the OSGeo-Live license guidelines at the time of contribution."


The current OSGeo-Live license guidelines are:
  • Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License for Quickstarts
  • Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License for Project Overviews
  • Version 2.1+ of the LGPL for install scripts
  • One of the OSI approved Open Source licenses for installed applications
A project admin will then add you to the osgeo user group.
Add your name to contributors list
The first thing you should do to test your svn install is to add your name the code contributors or translators list(s):
cd trunk/doc

# to edit a file
svn update contributors.csv translators.csv

# Coders and creators of new content: edit contributors.csv
# please add your Name, Email, Country and Osgeo_id to the list, separated by comma
#  - Order alphabetical by first name,
#  - remove punctuation from email addresses to stop harvesting for junk mail

# optionally check to see what has changed.
svn diff contributors.csv

# check the file back into subversion
svn commit contributors.csv

# Translators: edit translators.csv
# same as above, but the order of columns is:
# Language, i18n code, Name, Country, Email, Osgeo_id
#  - Order alphabetically by language, then by first name
#  - remove punctuation from email addresses to stop harvesting for junk mail

Working with files: 

# to add a file
cd <dir>

# create a file
svn add <file>
svn propset svn:mime-type <mime.type> <file>
svn commit <file>

# to move or rename a file
#  *** please use instead of 'svn add' + 'svn rm', otherwise the
#      development history gets lost and database space is wasted ***
svn move <old filename> <new filename>
svn commit <file>
  • A script to automatically set the svn props can be found here. More SVN hints here.
  • On MS Windows this can be made easy using Tortoise SVN which plugs directly into Windows Explorer.

FAQ

Press Releases

History

Live GIS History

Project Metrics

Use Cases

There are multiple use cases for this product:

  • Demo DVD that can be handed out at conferences.
    This will contain a wide variety of applications, preconfigured with some sample data and containing introductory tutorials. It should be able to function completely offline, at least within the scope of the tutorials, and should provide an introduction to many products. This is very much a Live DVD, and as such should be conservative with regards to size (it will be run from RAM).
  • Education DVD
    This seems to be a more involved version than the Demo DVD, including more involved material, including train-the-trainer style material. This is targeted at those who will be teaching others, be it in workshops or university classes/labs. My expectation (mleslie: feel free to correct me) is that this is more likely to be installed on machines and used as a teaching resource, as opposed to a toy to play with, as with the Demo DVD. This will require material developed through the.
  • Workstation Install DVD
    This need was seen in Cape Town, where the bandwidth seems to be a very limiting factor. Using the DVD to install either a complete OS, a set of packages to an existing Linux, or Windows installers completely offline is of great value in the developing world. Would it be of greater value to lose the Edu or demo material and put in complete application documentation?

Links to related projects

Build scripts in DebianGIS's SVN

Links to Build tool options

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