Rendering OSM data with MapServer on Ubuntu 10.10

This page provides step by step instructions to setup a Ubuntu 10.10 LTS server from scratch to render OSM data with MapServer 6.x.

The following instructions assume that we start with a brand new Ubuntu 10.10 server with Apache installed but none of the MapServer related packages installed.

The setup will include:

• MapServer 6.x (from the UbuntuGIS repository)
• PostgreSQL/PostGIS (from the UbuntuGIS repository)
• OSM data to be downloaded from ​http://download.geofabrik.de/osm/
• Use of "imposm" to load the data in PostGIS: ​http://imposm.org/
• Map configured in EPSG:900913 projection, with data loaded for the state of Alabama only, and using a Google-like style
• MapFile generated using "mapserver-utils": ​http://code.google.com/p/mapserver-utils/
• Tile caching using Mod-Geocache (to be renamed MapCache): ​http://mod-geocache.googlecode.com/

Create work directory

• All the steps that follow assume that the data and mapfiles will be installed in a directory called "osm-demo" in your home directory
• Commands:

    mkdir ~/osm-demo
    cd ~/osm-demo/
  

Install UbuntuGIS MapServer and PostGIS packages

• Relevant docs: ​http://trac.osgeo.org/ubuntugis/wiki/UbuntuGISRepository
• At the time of this writing, the current version of MapServer is 6.0.1
• Commands:

    sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install cgi-mapserver mapserver-bin
  
    sudo apt-get install postgresql
    sudo apt-get install postgis postgresql-8.4-postgis
  

• Install other non-GIS packages that will be required later on:

    sudo apt-get install mercurial subversion
    sudo apt-get install zip unzip
  

Download OSM data

• You can download data for your region of interest from ​http://download.geofabrik.de/osm/. The rest of these instructions assume that we work with the data for the state of Alabama.
• Commands:

    cd ~/osm-demo/
    wget http://download.geofabrik.de/osm/north-america/us/alabama.osm.pbf
  

Install imposm, using virtualenv

• Relevant docs: ​http://imposm.org/docs/imposm/latest/install.html
• Commands:

    cd ~/osm-demo/
    sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev protobuf-compiler \
                        libprotobuf-dev libtokyocabinet-dev python-psycopg2 \
                        libgeos-c1
  
    sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv
    virtualenv venv
  

• Install shapely speedups:

    sudo apt-get install libgeos-dev
    venv/bin/pip install https://github.com/olt/shapely_speedups/tarball/master
  

• If we wanted to use the release version of imposm then we'd run the following command, BUT WE DO NOT WANT THAT

    # Do not run this command unless you plan to use the release verison of imposm
    #venv/bin/pip install imposm
  

• Instead we'll use a custom branch of imposm created by tbonfort that creates additional generalized tables for use with mapserver-utils:

    hg clone https://bitbucket.org/tbonfort/imposm-tbonfort
    vi imposm-tbonfort/imposm/defaultmapping.py
  ... change proj to epsg:900913 (it is set to epsg:4326 bu default)
  
  

Create database

• Relevant docs: ​http://imposm.org/docs/imposm/latest/tutorial.html
• Commands:

    ~/osm-demo/venv2/bin/python imposm-tbonfort/imposm/psqldb.py > create-db.sh
    vi ./create-db.sh # cross check if all path are set
  ... edit the following lines:
  -------------------8<--------------
  psql -d osm -f /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/postgis-1.5/postgis.sql             # <- CHANGE THIS PATH
  psql -d osm -f /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/postgis-1.5/spatial_ref_sys.sql     # <- CHANGE THIS PATH
  ------------------->8--------------
  
    sudo su postgres
    sh ./create-db.sh
    /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 restart
    exit
  

• Note: If we were using the released version of imposm then the first command would have been:

    venv/bin/imposm-psqldb > create-db.sh
  

Load data using imposm

• Commands:

    cd ~/osm-demo/
    ~/osm-demo/venv/bin/python imposm-tbonfort/imposm/app.py --read alabama.osm.pbf
    ~/osm-demo/venv/bin/python imposm-tbonfort/imposm/app.py  --write --database osm --host localhost --user osm
    ~/osm-demo/venv/bin/python imposm-tbonfort/imposm/app.py  --optimize -d osm