Install HostGIS

From HostGISLinux

This page describes the basic installation of HostGIS on a new computer. It is based on an actual install to a low-end server, and is meant to show the installation process in detail.

[edit] Obtain the HostGIS distribution

The current HostGIS distribution can be downloaded from this website (www.hostgis.com) - see the Wiki page Download. Download the "Basic Server CD" and burn the downloaded ISO file to a CD. To start the installation, place the HostGIS CD in the computer's hard disk drive and start the computer. If the CD (or DVD) drive you use is recognized as a boot device, and is set in priority ahead of other devices like the hard disk drive, the computer will boot using the HostGIS CD.

If your computer does not boot from the CD, turn it off and restart it. As the computer powers up, request access to its basic setup system (e.g., by pressing the F2 key, which works on many Intel motherboards). This little system will generally give you the opportunity to select which device is checked first for the computer's boot image. Make sure your CD drive is the first device checked.

[edit] Perform the installation

The installation process appears as a series of pages or screens containing instructions and questions. In this section the pages are presented just as they appear in the example installation. Each page has been numbered in sequence, with as much of the text and menu choices documented as feasible.

Note: The test computer for this installation is a custom-built server. The motherboard is Intel, as is the dual-core Pentium CPU. The board has 4 gigabytes of RAM. There is a single 80-gigabyte IDE hard drive and a single IDE DVD/CD drive.

Place the HostGIS installation CD-ROM in the DVD/CD drive and power up the server. After some moments, the following text appears on the console screen:

boot:

Hit Enter to proceed.

[edit] Page 1

Welcome to the HostGIS Linux Installer

No changes will be made to your computer until the end,
and you will have a chance to bail out first.

At any time during this setup,
you can select Cancel to cancel installation.

Continue with the installation?
< Yes > < No >

Select <Yes>.

[edit] Page 2

First off, you'll need to partition your hard disk to make 
space for Linux. You will need to create at least the 
following partitions:

* One partition of type Linux, which will be formatted and 
  used for the filesystem. This partition needs to be at
  bare minimum 1 GB.

* The other partition of type 82, Linux Swap. This will be
  used as virtual memory. This partition can be fairly small,
  100-200 MB should be more than sufficient.

* You can also create additional Linux filesystem partitions,
  and mount them later for your bulk storage. In fact, you
  will probably want to create a third very large partition
  for this purpose, but that's up to you.

IMPORTANT: If you delete a partition, the data on that partition
will be lost! If you don't have any free space on the drive,
you'll need to free up some space by either deleting partitions

< OK >

Select <OK>.

The following message appears:

Disk /dev/hda doesn't contain a valid partition table.

Wait for some moments to pass.

[edit] Page 3

On which disk will you be
installing?

(X) /dev/hda   -

< OK > <Cancel>

Select <OK>.

No partition table or unknown signature on partition table
Do you wish to start with a zero table [y/N] ?

Type "y".

[edit] Page 4

                                 cfdisk 2.12

                             Disk Drive: /dev/hda
                       Size: 80026361856 bytes, 80.0 GB
             Heads: 255 Sectors per Track: 63 Cylinders: 9729

   Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type          [Label]        Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Pri/Log   Free Space                       80023.75







 


   [  Help  ]  [  New  ]  [  Print  ]  [  Quit  ]  [  Units  ]
   [ Write  ]

This is the user interface of the cfdisk disk formatting program. Before proceeding, some decisions about the hard disk format need to be made.

[edit] Determining number, type, and size of Linux partitions

For the Boot Drive:

To be able to boot HostGIS from the drive you are about to partition, you will need:

A primary partition
One or more swap partitions
Zero or more primary/logical partitions

For any other drive:

One or more primary/logical partitions
Zero or more swap partitions

The number of primary partitions on a hard drive is limited to four. While Linux can be installed on either a primary or a logical partition, we will use a primary partition in this example.

The Linux root partition

This is the location of the base Linux operating system files, and also of the main software applications included with the distribution. As noted on an earlier page in the installation process, the HostGIS installation needs at least one gigabyte allocated for the Linux partition.

The swap partition

The swap partition is used to store programs if the main (RAM) memory is full. The suggested size of the swap partition depends on the configuration of the computer, particularly on the amount of RAM installed. If you have a hard disk of a reasonable size, it is usually recommended that you create a swap size between the size your computer's RAM and double that size. For example, if you have 4 gigabytes of RAM, make the swap partition between 4 and 8 gigabytes in size.

Additional partitions

Everything in the Linux file system can be placed in the same (single) partition. However, there are circumstances when you may want to create additional partitions to house particular parts of the filesystem. The rules of thumb are many, and advice from different sources is not always consistent. Check elsewhere on the Web for more details. Here's a brief overview:

/var

This filesystem contains Linux output directories, such as the spool directories for mail and printing and the error log directory. If the server develops a chronic error, log messages can fill the partition. Server computers should have /var in a different partition than / (the "root").

/tmp

Some programs write temporary data files here. Usually, they are quite small. But some computationally intensive jobs, like science or engineering applications, may use hundreds of megabytes for brief periods of time. In this case, keep /tmp in a different partition than /.

/usr

This is where most executable binaries go. In addition, the kernel source tree goes here, and considerable system documentation.

/home

This is where the home directories of individual users go. If there are no quotas on the number or file usage of users, this content should be in its own partition.

[edit] Selected values for this example

For this server, the following partitions and size values will be used:

Linux root partition

3,000 megabytes (3 gigabytes)

Swap partition

4,000 megabytes (4 gigabytes)

/var

10,000 megabytes (10 gigabytes)

/tmp

2,000 megabytes (2 gigabytes)

/usr

40,000 megabytes (40 gigabytes)

/home

20,000 megabytes (20 gigabytes)