I don’t often (ever?) ask for help on my blog but I’ve hit a snag with my continuing investigations into installing mapguide open source on ubuntu. My questions on the mailing list haven’t been answered, so I’m hoping that some kind blog reader will help me out.

The problem:

I can only use arbitrary x-y coordinate systems. This is officially recognised as bug 582, where categories.txt is in the wrong place, and a fix has been suggested.

The fix:

Move/copy (not sure which) categories.txt into the correct folder, and you should see all the coordinate system options.

But, there’s the rub- I can’t. I have moved, copied, reinstalled, changed makefiles, restarted, ran as root or non-root, checked environmental variables, and nothing changes. I still can’t see any other coordinate systems.

I think one of two things has happened:

1: Something went awry in my install that I didn’t notice.

2: The fix is actually more complex but no one will tell me what it is.

If the answer is 1) I would love it if someone could show me how to debug it, and where it might have gone wrong so I can try and fix it. If 2) I would be equally grateful if someone could tell me in very simple but precise terms how they fixed the problem.

Either way, I can offer eternal gratitude, good karma, complimentary blog-posting, and if I’m anywhere near your area I’ll buy you a pint/bar of chocolate/reasonably-priced indulgence of your choice.

Seriously guys, this is my last ditch attempt to persevere with what I think is the best web mapping application around at the moment, and I really, really want to make it work…