Portable GIS (updated)
GIS on a USB stick.
Announcement: Portable GIS Version 2 is released! Download it here
The philosophy behind this idea was to provide beginners with a ready-installed and configured stack of open source GIS tools that would run in windows without the need for emulation or a live cd. By taking out the often difficult installation and configuration, I hope to make it easier for beginners to get started with open source GIS, so they are not put off before it gets interesting and fun. Not only that, but having a fully self-contained GIS system may prove useful in a number of real-life situations.
Newly updated version 2 contains a self-contained installer, updated versions of all the constituent software packages, a new control panel, and improved documentation.
The current set of software includes:
- Desktop GIS packages QGIS (with GRASS plugin), uDIG and gvSIG,
- FWTools (GDAL and OGR toolkit)
- XAMPPlite (Apache2/MySQL5/Php5),
- PostgreSQL (version 8.4)/Postgis (version 1.4),
- Mapserver, OpenLayers, Tilecache, Featureserver, and Geoserver web applications.
The packages and menu system are all open source, but each component has a separate license. Some of the components have been altered in order to make them drive-letter independent.
Provisoes:
- This is not for production use. In order to keep end user configuration to a minimum there are a number of security holes and as such it should be used for demonstration and home use only.
- It is also not “stealth GIS”- no attempt has been made to leave no trace on the host system.
Support and Assistance:
- Launchpad site (with bug tracker and mailing list)
- Portable GIS Google Group
I am now offering enterprise-level support, customisation and deployment of Portable GIS via OADigital. Please click here for further details of this service.
[...] Portable GIS [...]
This is fantastic. I am very interested in this concept. What it means for us is that we can distribute GIS and database packages to poor African countries in portable formats.
Please add my to your mailing list, for updates.
Medical Research Council, South Africa. Malaria Research Lead Program for Africa.
Thanks for the support Sarel- I don’t actually have a mailing list yet but it looks like it will be a good idea and I will see what I can do. In the mean time I will keep posting here.
Jo
I have been running a Quantum GIS(0.74 with PostgreSQL support) from a USB stick since a while.
It is fairly useful for a fast (and rough) map composition and printing but it has limited edition/analysis capabilities until now…
I understand that version 0.8 is already available and it has a GRASS plugin so things are improving fast.
Hi JC, Thanks for stopping by. It’s the 0.8 version that I use currently- with GRASS and postgresql/postgis support. I guess I’ll have to move up to 0.9 now though!
[...] is encouraging. There is now a dedicated page to portable GIS and with more community involvement, maybe we’ll start seeing some real progress here. As I wrote [...]
Hey Jo,
I see that you have modified Daily Cup of Tech’s usb drive menu to use Submenus. I have had a look at this, but I’m not quite there. I wanted to have it dynamically driven from the applist.ini file. Would you mind forwarding your modifications to me?
Also, how are you doing on a release for your GIS on a stick?
Hey Farley,
See your email! I think I will probably post my modifications to the menu to DCOT, and also host them here as well since a few people have asked about that.
The portable GIS release is a bit up in the air as work pressures are making it hard for me to commit much time to it. However, something has come up which makes it more of a priority so watch this space…
Jo
Now Jo’s paper about this project is available in the OSGeo Journal:
http://www.osgeo.org/files/journal/v3/en-us/final_pdfs/cook.pdf
Enjoy.
Tyler
p.s. Was there a decision or method for having OSGeo host the files for you?
Thanks Tyler,
I’ll edit the post to include the link to the journal. As for the hosting, we’re still trying to decide on the best approach for it.
Jo
Hi Jo
I like the idea. Someone asked about mailing list for the project. I am looking at doing one for aerial imagery capture using small and mid format cameras. I thought about setting up Mailman myself but found that hosting is available… much easier. One site I liked is this https://www.emwd.com/mailmanorder.html Its just $10 to set up a list, and $4 per month for the hosting. All moderator managed by browser interface.
Best wishes with the project
David
Hi Dave,
Many thanks for the heads up on mailing lists- we’re still looking into the various options for the project. I’m keen to keep the momentum going, but it’s hard amongst all the other things (real work and so on). I’ll check out the link you suggest. I’m interested in your project as well-do you have some more information about it?
Jo
[...] a job for FWTools. Luckily, I remembered a post or two from James as well as the fine work done by Jo Cook. I figured if it could run from a USB stick, then why not a [...]
hi there
am interested in this. however, when i go to extract i get asked for a password? any clues? or am i missing something obvious?
i am also interested in where to obtain data? as an independent researcher (ie not educationally affiliated) my research is into prehistoric features in an area, however HERs don’t have the license to share shape files etc. of os data. I know there’s no chance of obtaining OS data, but is there any basic basemap data out there for free or a small charge?
cheers
Hi Giles,
I didn’t zip it with a password, so you shouldn’t need one to unzip it. What are software are you using to unzip it?
Regarding base map data- this is really difficult, and the only answer I have so far is openstreetmap, but that can be of limited use. You may want to investigate the ordnance survey print license, which allows you to scan paper ordnance survey maps and put them in cad or gis. It’s quite cheap- you could contact them and ask if it’s valid for what you want to do.
Thanks for stopping by
Jo
Is there any link for download of those application. Fyi, ILWIS 3.4 Open is also a protable GIS which can be run directly on flashdisk without insalling it.
Hi Iwan,
The download link is at the top of this page. I’m interested in your alternative portable gis- can you give me a link to it?
All the best
Jo
Hi Jo,
Yup.. i’ve missed that link! I realize when I already post my message..
URL of ILWIS 3.4 OPEN is at http://www.itc.nl/ilwis/ and http://52north.org/index.php?option=com_projects&task=showProject&id=30&Itemid=127
Btw, I link this page at my blog (in Indonesian language).
Regards,
Iwan
[...] Portable GIS 1.2 ist freigeben. Es handelt sich hierbei um ein GIS-Software-Paket, das ohne Installation von einem USB-Stick genutzt werden kann. [...]
[...] the GIS-in-my-pocket department, Portable GIS 1.2 has been [...]
Portable GIS: PostgreSQL and PostGIS on a USB Stick…
First this is a windows only package, but nevertheless sweet. In our article
What can PostgreSQL learn from MySQL?
we complained about the fact that there is nothing like Server2GO pre-packaged with PostgreSQL. Low and behold comes this thing
cal…
Its nice to know the Portable concept has come to GIS arena. Hope this will provide a good choice for learners and beginners. Congrats
OK, torrent created. http://www.mininova.org/tor/1536361
Hey SEWilco,
Thanks for creating the torrent, and for adding the bit about optional registration- it’s handy for me to have a list (and to know roughly how many downloads there have been). Not knowing a great deal about torrents- what will happen when I update it? Will I need to set up a new torrent?
Thanks again
Jo
Yes, a new torrent will need to be created for a new release. Several BitTorrent tools can create a .torrent file (probably the Java-based Azureus/Vuze is best for a beginner). You need to know at least one tracker announce URL; I haven’t set up a tracker on my server yet, so I’m trying some public ones — if my torrent works you could just copy them. You also need to have at least one BitTorrent client running with the file available, so it can “seed” to other people. This is the first .torrent I’ve created in a while, but seems to be working.
Thanks! I’ll bear that in mind when I update the package.
Jo
[...] PostgreSQL. Low and behold comes this thing called Portable GIS 1.2 which can be downloaded from http://www.archaeogeek.com/blog/portable-gis/. This is similar in architecture to Portable Apps. Its a suite of applications you can run from [...]
Really great work.
I dont know about everyone else, but id really benefit from some kind of forum (other than the comments on this blog) or a mailing list where issues/ideas/tutorials could be discussed.
I guess the easiest idea would be to set up a Google Group and then email people that have downloaded it.
I dont mind helping sort this out, but dont want to do it without permission. Let me know please.
1 on the Google Groups idea. Especially since, almost by definition, there will be a lot of 1st timers playing around with the apps, there will be one stop shopping for the more obvious questions thus alleviating the load on our Fearless Project Leader.
Brian
@Brian and Simon,
Consider it done… http://groups.google.com/group/portable-gis
At the moment you have to ask to be a member but we’ll see how things go…
Jo
Thank you for the contribution!
I am very interested in this topic, I will look at it held up.
Regards.
i’m a rook to OS GIS .. is there a method/command to copy a PostgreSQl/PostGIS database from my laptop to my gis-on-a-stick?
Hi j03lar50n,
There are a couple of ways to do it- using either the command line or a gui such as pgadmin or phppgadmin (which is on the usb stick).
Using the command line, as your normal postgresql user you want to run the command:
pg_dump yourdatabase > yourbackupfile.sql
You can then import that into the version of postgresql on the stick by using the command:
psql -f yourbackupfile.sql yourusbstickdatabase
(of course to do the second bit you need to use the version of psql that’s on the stick rather than on your hard drive).
Pgadmin and phppgadmin both have export options which do the same thing, and then import options to bring the data back in.
Hope that makes sense- don’t hesitate to ask if not!
Jo
Hi,
Take a look at FloppyGIS (631kb).
http://ldinakis.googlepages.com
I have developed it in order to be a portable Shapefile/Image Viewer. It is freeware. If you find it OK, you could add it to Portable-GIS collection.
Lazaros Dinakis
Hi Lazaros,
Thanks for pointing this out, it’s really handy! I will see about fitting it in to portable gis in the next release along with a couple of other “micro-tools” that I’ve found out about.
Cheers
Jo
Hi All,
You have done a gteat job with the concept for portablegis.
Is there any pack in your collection of portablegis, which is working for MAC OS X?
Please, tell me what I can use for MAC.
Hi Zhivko,
This particular package is just for windows pcs, but most of the individual software is also available for macs, just not packaged up together. If you drop me a line on the portable gis mailing list about what you are trying to do (eg which packages you are interested in) then I can point you in the right direction for mac versions.
Thanks
Jo
A must for people working from a USB stick.
Many thanks for your work.
1) The Postgresql integration is not overloaded with security checks like in other available distributions. That’s absolutely fantastic: thank you again.
2) The USB drive management is also very well done, since the drive letter is always changing. Super.
Still not doing too much with GIS applications (coming soon) but using Xampp (for Tikiwiki) Postgresql (for Ofbiz/Opentaps) on a daily basis already.
Waiting for the next release with interest.
Please, do not stop and go on.
Thx for the update Jo, looking fwd to putting it thru its paces. I now joined a web mapping startup out of Exeter, tho I’m still in Cambridge. One question tho, is your blog ok, its comments post only until Feb 13 2009? Chs, A.
Hi Andrew,
Yeah, I think the blog is OK- there are comments on other posts after Feb (I just had a long break in between releases of Portable GIS so there’s a gap on this page). Hope the new job goes well!
Jo
thank you very much!
but portableGIS 2v not a alone menu to use GRASS, hope to keep it like before version.
@dlliu, thanks for stopping by!
I took the decision to remove the stand-alone version of GRASS as it was included as a plugin in Quantum GIS, and it allowed me to save quite a lot of space. I would like to configure it so that both the stand-alone version and the plugin can be run, using the same files, but haven’t been able to do this yet.
[...] De aquí lo pueden descargar. [...]
[...] De aquí lo pueden descargar. [...]
[...] Portable GIS (updated) [...]
I more and more often come across with QGIS applications on the web. Shame that our firm is focused on MapInfo and ArcGIS-packages I am confident to say that we often don’t need all of the functionalities and I am sure that a good open-source application would be able to fulfil our requirements.
It would be nice to see QGIS to lead itself into the corporate GIS world. By including this portable platform/format would surely enhance the possibility of that!
Regards
CroAxis
[...] Portable GIS (updated) [...]
[...] um novo painel de controle e melhorias na documentação. Você pode acessar a página do projeto clicando aqui. O volume total a ser baixado é próximo aos 500 [...]
Hey, i really like the idea of a portable GIS but i would like to know whether it is possible to add pg-routing to the set of software. This would be great…
Greetz
Hi Christian,
I’ll certainly look at including pg-routing into the next release. I’m not all that familiar with it, but following these instructions http://www.davidgis.fr/documentation/pgrouting-1.02/ it should be easy to add it yourself if you wanted!
Thanks
Jo (Archaeogeek)
I have download portable gis, and I love this new version with lot more tools, I have a question regarding to mapserver that comes with portable GIS v2, how to set up or add php_mapscript extension to php in xampplite, I have try to do like this but failed :
1. Add the necessary files (libmap.dll, gdal17.dll, etc.) to a new folder (foldername = A ). I get those files from new version of MS4W.
2. Add the folder path to the windows path environment.
3. Modified php.ini to add php_mapscript
When I try to launch apache server it says something like “couldn’t load msvcr90.dll”, I copied the file from windows folder and add it to folder A, new error says “wrong msvcr version”.