Notices

maemo_mapper (MM)

Thanks for a very nice and extensible geographic mapping software. Its very impressive.

But I am having trouble making use of the larger external memory card for storing the map cache on a Nokia N810

Before installing MM I installed a 8GB sdhc card and created a Maps directory (which appears as /media/mmc1/Maps).

I then proceeded to install and then went to the repository diaglog where I changed the location of the OpenStreet.db to /media/mmc1/OpenStreet.db

I also added the other default repositories and made the same change to the file path to /media/mmc1.Maps/<repository name>.db

I proceeded to try each repository at my home location. I then used the file manager to observe that the sizes of these db files was significantly large and I also looked at the default location of the Maps folder and noted that no repository data bases were in that location.

I then closed MM and then restarted MM. The following error message appears:

"Failed to open map database for repository Downloaded maps will not be cached."

Pressed ok, and then went to the repositories dialog and noted the data base locations for each repository remained at the /media/mmc1/Maps folder. Pressed ok, got the same error message.

I then closed MM and opened a x-terminal and used ls -la to observe the permissions on the /media/mmc1/Maps folder (rwx for all users) and the permissions on the db files within which were rw-r--r-- . I then attempted to use
'sudo chmod a+w /media/Maps/OpenStreet.db' but got the error 'Read-only file system'.

I guess that means that the sdhc card is not properly mounted. But then how were the database files written on the removable memory card the first time around?

I cannot seem to find the proper way to use external memory which is a must as I want to use terrain or topographic maps which tend to be large data bases.

I don't know about your sdhc problem, if you have one. But I think each db needs to be in a folder called Maps. You say that you have:

/media/mmc1/OpenStreet.db

but it seems to me it ought to be

/media/mmc1/Maps/OpenStreet.db

Also, I don't know why you had to create

/media/mmc1/Maps

which I think MM creates automatically.

What I've done is make a number of folders, with names like MapsSeattle and MapsEgypt, and I just rename a single folder to Maps, and that's the one that MM then uses.

Just make sure that you have some world detail in each one or it get confused when you change Map folders. (Then, when you first change, go to a very high zoom level, and you ought to see the map, then zero in on your target location.)

I've never changed anything in the Cache DB dialog.

There does not have to be a folder "Maps", the cache DBs can be where ever you point maemo mapper to read them from.

I frequently have this problem, I suspect that the memory cards get jolted around and loose contact, so maemo unmounts them. Usually removing/reinstalling the card works for me, but it is frustrating (it's happening now more with old tablet age).