Xenialpup 7.5 no CRS library for qgis 2.8.6

[pup93yrs]

I just started using Xenialpup and tried qgis from the Xenial repository. It runs OK except there is no coordinate system listing or library.

Do a complete uninstall and reinstall; this time scouring the repository for anything resembling a proj4 or any other projections file -- nothing worked.

Does anyone have experience getting qgis fully functional on Xenialpup? How to get projections/CRS working?

________________________
My system:
Xenialpup 7.5
Dell Latitude D620
dual-core Intel CPU (2.0GHz)
2GB RAM
Booting from CD with persistent storage on 1TB internal hdd.

[matchpoint]

How are you doing there, pup93yrs? Okay minus that package, huh?

It sounds like you forgot to include ALL the dependencies that go along with it.

Was QGIS the only program you installed from package manager?

Wow! Super-size me! -- https://imgur.com/XEV3Vtw

[bigpup]

The following may not be much help to you.

Welcome to the kennels!

just started using Xenialpup and tried qgis from the Xenial repository.

Did you install it by using the Puppy Package Manager(PPM) and doing a search for qgis?
If no.
Install it this way.

Good idea to run the PPM>Configure>Update database before downloading anything.
Repositories change and this is the way PPM knows about the changes.

I think you want to select this to get the program and all dependencies.

Code: Select all

qgis_2.8.6+dfsg

We will try to help, but we only know what you tell us.
Be detailed and specific.
You do what?
You see what?

Probably doing a Google search for your problem will get you some answers as to what you need.

Maybe someone will come along that knows how to use this program.

[matchpoint]

This is most likely the page you want: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntugis

I'll add if you're a Linux beginner and want a reasonably current version of this program (v2.14.11), as I suspect you would, then move to a distro that would make running this application practical.

[mikeslr]

following up matchpoint's suggestion, I'd add "or here":https://qgis.org/debian/. Although it says "debian" that was the page linked to by "debian or ubuntu". Following the links relating to 32-bit Xenial, eventually takes you here: https://qgis.org/debian/dists/xenial/main/binary-i386/, within which was the attached "packages.gz", part of which reads:

:Package: qgis
Version: 1:2.18.16+24xenial
Architecture: i386
Maintainer: QGIS developers <qgis-developer@lists.osgeo.org>
Installed-Size: 18338
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libgdal.so.1-1.11.3, libgdal1i (>= 1.9.0), libgeos-c1v5 (>= 3.4.2), libgsl2, libqgis-analysis2.18.16, libqgis-app2.18.16, libqgis-core2.18.16, libqgis-gui2.18.16, libqgis-networkanalysis2.18.16, libqt4-network (>= 4:4.5.3), libqt4-sql (>= 4:4.5.3), libqt4-xml (>= 4:4.5.3), libqtcore4 (>= 4:4.8.0), libqtgui4 (>= 4:4.8.0), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2), python-qgis (= 1:2.18.16+24xenial), qgis-providers (= 1:2.18.16+24xenial), qgis-common (= 1:2.18.16+24xenial)
Recommends: qgis-plugin-grass, qgis-provider-grass
Suggests: gpsbabel
Conflicts: uim-qt3
Homepage: http://qgis.org/
Priority: optional
Section: science
Filename: pool/main/q/qgis/qgis_2.18.16+24xenial_i386.deb
Size: 6554168
SHA256: 366ebad687da413a18ab0e0dc985eee761b11b3206bb018de25013a3bd8993d3
SHA1: 3021b4dacc74418e5706c6afe10ececba2639dfa
MD5sum: 505ffd9ee5ed32e3e8c98448de57084c
Description: Geographic Information System (GIS)
A Geographic Information System (GIS) manages, analyzes, and displays
databases of geographic information. QGIS supports shape file viewing and
editing, spatial data storage with PostgreSQL/PostGIS, projection on-the-fly,
map composition, and a number of other features via a plugin interface. QGIS
also supports display of various georeferenced raster and Digital Elevation
Model (DEM) formats including GeoTIFF, Arc/Info ASCII Grid, and USGS ASCII
DEM."

But, unpack the attached gz and read it completely. Unfamiliar with the application and unsure as to what to look for, I only scanned it for "CRS" and "projection".

Other links from other folders revealed a bunch of debs for various distros and architectures here: https://qgis.org/debian/pool/main/q/qgis/

I note that although you referred to qgis 2.8.6 the website had no information about such version and assume you meant to refer to 2.18.6.

mikesLr

[matchpoint]

Again, if you would rather play and not build the guitar, my money's on the popular vote.

What's the best linux distro for QGIS?

Welcome to OSGeo-Live 11.0

Snappy!

Snappy without Systemd.

[pup93yrs]

Wow! Thanks everyone for a nice, warm welcome and for so many responses so fast. Your thoughts inspired many hours of installing new packages, thinking, Google searches and reading late into the night and all today with a positive result.

I found projection data in two formats: (1) in several text files with projection details at /usr/share/proj/ and (2) as part of a sqlite database at (A) /root/.qgis2/qgis.db also at (B) /usr/share/qgis/resources/qgis.db which seems to be a list of projection names without details. The strange thing is starting qgis causes the timestamp on the (A) file to update but does not affect (B) timestamp. So, qgis is aware of /root/.qgis/qgis.db at least.

Possibly this is a qgis configuration problem (the detailed projection data not being where qgis looks for it)? Would not have gotten here without your help. Thank you all.

For those who want to read further, answers to your kind, helpful comments follow.

bigpup: My laptop has a 32-bit architecture, so I'm using the 32-bit version of Xenialpup v7.5. Don't know why I forgot to mention 32-bit in the original post. While the machine is about 11 years old, I bought it used with no hard drive 3 years ago. I have previous experience with Slackopuppy32 v5.7 using a flash drive for persistent storage on this laptop. After using Xenialpup for a few days with flash drive, I decided to go for a hard drive (brand new ~2 weeks), and made a 100GB partition for puppy -- using a saveFOLDER rather than savefile.

matchpoint and bigpup: Before adding any packages, I ran PPM update. My first install was conky. Later I searched PPM for "qgis" and found the venerable "qgis_2.8.6+dfsg". I selected ONLY that package; PPM calculated over 80 dependencies were required, and I let PPM auto install them all. There were zero (0) error messages. No packages failed to download or install. No missing shared libraries were reported.

When I discovered the projections problem, I also installed a bunch of gis-related packages in an effort to stumble on a solution to the CRS/projection problem. No joy, yet -- and no new problems introduced by the new packages.

My Google searches turned up nothing that directly applied to the lack of CRS data for qgis.

mikeslr: Thanks for the links and listing; they helped. I like the idea of an older and presumably less-resource-intensive version of qgis for this old laptop. It would be used for presentation rather than production. The similarity between 2.8.6 and 2.18.6 is uncanny and unfortunate; however, if it is possible to install "qgis version: 1:2.18.16+24xenial architecture: i386" with full resolution of dependencies directly from the Debian repository, I'm willing to try it. How would I set up PPM to do downloads and install from Debian? I've seen a "how-to" for doing that at /usr/local/petget/README-add-repo.htm but it seems very complicated and several of the example lines of code are truncated.

A few days ago, I found the Ubuntu Xenial package list for "qgis_2.8.6+dfsg-1build1" at https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/qgis and checked the dependencies list against the actual downloaded package names. They were identical with the exception of these three: python-qgis_2.8.6+dfsg, qgis-common_2.8.6+dfsg and qgis-providers_2.8.6+dfsg. The only difference was that on the Ubuntu list the package names carry this suffix "-1build1" and the Xenialpup package names are as shown (without the suffix). In theory, the original set of packages installed via PPM should be complete and qgis should work "out of the box".

matchpoint: Thanks for the reminder about the very impressive OSGeo-Live. Haven't looked at it for a long time, but definitely will again.

If any of this helps solve the problem, please let me know. Thanks for everybody's help.

[bigpup]

Working with Projections
http://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/wo ... ctions.html

[pup93yrs]

bigpup: Yes, "QGIS Tutorials and Tips" is a great how-to site. And the page you suggested (http://www.qgistutorials.com/en/docs/wo ... tions.html) includes some neat stuff. However, their tutorials assume a fully functional installation of qgis -- not one that can't find its projection dataset.

I continue trying different search terms in Google, but none has come close to finding a posted solution to this problem. The qgis forum closed in 2012. No help there. As it is, I've put way more time in on this "get-qgis-running-on-puppy" whim than anyone would consider sane. I'm stubborn, but there is a limit.

[mikeslr]

Hi pup93yrs,

Sorry I can't be much help on this project. It involves python -- which in my ignorance always bites me.

Your right, reconfiguring Puppy Package Manager to add repositories is rather daunting. If it's really important, you might want to try one of the "DebianDogs" available via this Forum. Look under the Projects and the Derivatives SubForums. These start as minimal Debian and Ubuntu operating systems, configured to work similar to Puppies, but use both apt-get and synaptic making it easier to obtain applications and their dependencies. MintPup, in particular, comes to mind. It accesses Trusty Tahr's repositories, but can --fairly easily-- be reconfigured to access the repos of Linux Mint (hence its name). With the exception of MintPup, all the Dog's have "Dog" in their respective names.

If you Stick with Xenialpup, (I think) I read --but have no experience trying-- that it is sometimes possible to rename later versions of python modules to the version your application requires.

There is often a way to use later versions of binaries when an application requires an earlier version. Later versions are frequently backward compatible. So with the new version in its proper place, you create a symbolic link to it whose name is the older version: File-browse to the location of the new version, right-click an empty spaced and select Window>Terminal here, and enter a variation of this formula:

ln -s NEWFILENAME OLDFILENAME

if the old file needs to be at a different location, at the old file's location

ln -s /FULL_PATH_TO_NEW_FILE/NEWFILENAME OLDFILENAME

Good luck,

mikesLr

[pup93yrs]

Hi mikesLr,

Thanks for the tip about the DebianDogs and MintPup. Apart from qgis not working fully, I've been happy with Xenialpup. If that changes it will be time to take a look at MintPup. I use Linux Mint on a desktop and like it. Puppy is a great family: doing so much with so little overhead and breathing new life into old computers, etc, etc. Now with the Slacko, Ubuntu and Debian variants that access those huge parent repositories -- simply awesome.

The qgis projection problem became a challenge to be overcome, and I'm following up on a couple last leads. If they don't pan out, then goodbye qgis and back to a "life". Once upon a long time ago, I loved all this trial-and-discovery of computers, now I mostly just want the thing to work.

That is a pretty slick trick to use a symbolic link to make a later version of a binary work in place of a required earlier version. There have been situations where that could have helped. This gets saved for future reference.

Thanks for all your input on the projections problem. It may boil down to a small configuration (or file-location) fault that has crept in between qgis on Ubuntu-Xenial and qgis on Xenialpup.

Cheers,
pup93yrs

[matchpoint]

pup93yrs, if you haven't quite given up on this notion, let me have a look at your /root/.packages/user-installed-packages file. I'd like to see which dependencies were pulled in by the package manager.

When you attach it, do so with a fake .gz extension.

Thanks.

[pup93yrs]

matchpoint: Here is the /root/.packages/user-installed-packages file. Please note that subsequent to installing qgis, I added a bunch of packages that looked possibly related to GIS but were not listed as dependencies for qgis. I also installed apt and synaptic to get a different look at the available packages, but apparently I have to create the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory and the /ext/apt/sources.list file. Need to read up on what is expected there.

Hope the user-installed-packages file reveals some insight as to the source of the problem. Thanks for the tip about using the .gz extension. I would never have noticed the "Allowed Extensions and Sizes" instructions link.

Thanks for checking it out.

[matchpoint]

No, you have the Python stuff I thought you might have been missing. All good.

When it comes to Apt and Synaptic, well, keep in mind that Puppy isn't some fur-laden, sinewy creature built upon Ubuntu, it merely raids its food supply. Puppy's single user. Ubuntu, multi. It's also permissions based. Yeah, Puppy does observe some permissions, or rather, has to be made obedient in dealing with programs that weren't meant to crack the whip. CUPS comes to mind; frequently broken by new and unsuspecting users. Where would Puppy printing be without Shakespeare?

Now if, like you've said, "you mostly just want the thing to work," take my advice and try one or both of those spins I posted; side-step this madness.

You'll save yourself, and us, a "lot" of tail chasing.

"HOT" off the press!

[matchpoint]

Last minute thought: When you run an application from the command line, leaving the terminal open, the console sometimes spits out what's happening as you use the program. Maybe you get it to the point where you ask for a projection and note the messages. I'll bet there's a good chance it throws a clue towards a shortcoming with Puppys`Python install.

[pup93yrs]

matchpoint: Thanks for confirming the dependencies are all there. The purpose behind installing Synaptic was to see if it had more complete descriptions and/or dependency lists than offered through PPM -- not as a replacement for PPM, which seems to work well.

Referring to your thoughtful "Hot off the press" link; I looked at PeppermintOS a few months back and decided it was not for me.

That was a great hint about starting qgis from the terminal. Doing so generates some warning and error messages (file attached to satisfy curiosity). The warnings don't seem to apply to the projections problem. The repeated "ERROR 6: The PNG driver does not support update access to existing datasets" message makes no sense to me. However, this exact message was posted March 12, 2015 on Stack Exchange (https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions ... g-datasets). In three years the post received a couple comments (which also remain opaque to me) but no answer.

The qgis projection problem is proving too recalcitrant, and it is time to let it go. Thanks everybody for your help; your response was more than I anticipated.