Cent OS woes

A sad title .. hmm


Well I am back to a redhat based distribution after a long time and getting it to run my way did take some effort :)

It started even before I downloaded the Centos 5.4 DVD . My Ubuntu File system installed by a certain friend has only 8 GB on its root partition . I had to remove/move all the files so that I could successfully download the DVD .

I was shocked by the anaconda when I selected text installation .. WTF things haven't changed at all !! I selected basic installation because I wanted things to finish fast . I carefully selected not to install Grub . Though it gave a warning I kind ignored it .

Booting centOS via grub legacy became a nightmare. Ubuntu forums some oe suggested that chainloading is the best way to go . Actually its the worst way to go for a centOS .

To chainload I did two things one was to install grub in centos root partion .. next I messed it up to such an extent that I wanted it on my MBR. but the grub in centOS itself is in a mess .

Left desperate I went to Grub2 . Things were smooth . I found someone telling me that I need to install centOS again but without any grub . I did that and was unable to boot because ubuntu's perception of root partition sda6 !=hdb6 which was centOS perception . I was left with kernel panic's for some time . Then I tried out with noacpi knowing in heart that it has nothing to do with it. Finally looking at my own grub config I realised that CentOS entry was missing a initrd line .

Adding the initrd line was simple to figure out after so many tries. Anyways Grub2 Rocks !

By the way CentOS 5.3 looks just like RH9 :D

Mapping

Well OSM rocks big time !!

There are huge number of tags to select and I really love both the tools

• Potlatch : Good for intermediate web editing
  
• JOSM: Good for advanced and B/W conscious user ( like me )
  

One thing is true . Its hard to begin :(

Availablity of GPS traces is the only way you can map places in India .

Here is my map

View Larger Map

There are still lot of things to do :)

First trace

Hurray .. here's my first trace ... finally a line on my home town :)

The blue line beside the previous road marking is mine . I am a bit confused on the previous markings . They have marked a well known road. But I doubt the accuracy . It also didn't coincide well with google's mapping . ( just a comparision )

I will be posting more. By the way this is not SE 'yari' as previously posted. I have got a nokia N82 sooner than the Yari .
I used 'sports tracker application and it could export to gpx easily .

Mapping $HOME

I am not happy to see that one of the top contributors for $HOME in google maps was a user called 'pavi' LOL

'Efforts better utilised' Yeah I get the feeling . I tried many times to use the potlach editor for mapping . But the Yahoo satellite imagery zoom level is so bad that I couldn't even identify the place.
The same was with google 2 years back . But now the satellite did come and take some snapshots . I can identify even buildings . That made easy the mapping of places . Anyways now I have got some practice using google maps.

One day I sat down mapping using potlach . I could change the population so that my place would be visible in OSM on a particular zoom level . I also added grand ma's village and some places like hospital . But it is a very cumbersome process.

The only way to get $HOME on OSM is via GPS . Luckily I could find a SE 'yari' mobile with a GPS inbuilt. I haven't yet seen the device. But I found some software which works with it .

Mobile Trail Explorer is a free software which can export gpx and kml files . I installed it on my SE 'z550i' which doesn't have a GPS inbuilt but it anyways got installed because the software can use a GPS device built on a external bluetooth device.

As of now waiting to get my hands on SE 'yari' !