Software for DIY off-road navigation

Creating Boot Media

The Ubuntu homepage used to have a bootable USB image, but not anymore. Thus, you need a bootable CD or DVD with the current version. For the workshop, I used Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. If you already have installed Ubuntu on your home PC, use the Startup Disk Creator opened from the Start menu.

Otherwise, you can download the CD or DVD image or a bootable Ubuntu version and burn it to disk. Then, start the computer from the disk and create a bootable USB stick with the program. The USB stick should have a minimum capacity of 8GB.

The USB stick contains only the system for the actual installation to the SD card. If you no longer need the system on the built-in SSD hard drive, this can be a destination as well. In the case of the SD card, it's advisable to have a model with at least 16GB disk space.

Boot the EeePC and press F2 while starting it, which enters the system BIOS, where you select the USB stick as start media. Clicking the first entry has the BIOS show you the order of the listed drives. From this menu, be sure that the USB is at the top of the list. If not, choose the item and use the plus sign to move it to the top. Press F10 to save your settings, exit the menu, and reboot.

The system will now boot from the USB stick and provide Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which you then install on the SD or SSD card. Indicate where you want to install GRUB, then you can start from the SD or SSD card without having to do so manually from BIOS.

Completion

After the installation restart the computer. At this point, call up the BIOS one last time, remove the USB stick before booting, and press F2 again. Then, reset the boot order so that the start media (SD or SSD) is at the top, then reboot.

Your netbook is now a full-fledged (if somewhat slower) Ubuntu computer where you can install the newest version of QLandkarteGT, as described above for the home PC. The netbook doesn't need any additional software. If you're using an 16GB SD card, there's plenty of free space.

All the work you've done on maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks on the home PC is best saved on a separate USB stick and used on the netbook. The resources on the netbook are still scarce. Using a USB stick shouldn't present any problems, even with respect to mechanical stability when bumping along a dirt trail, as long as it's a micro-USB stick.

You now need the maps installed on the netbook, seeing that no Internet access will be available on your off-road trip. Sources for these maps come from the streaming servers from OpenStreetMap, Google, or elsewhere.

So, how do you get the maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks for QLandkarteGT onto the netbook? Figure 8 shows an overview of the project. The central part is your home PC (at the left) with QLandkarteGT. On it, you create waypoints, routes, and tracks using the OpenStreetMap server and MapQuest route server.

Figure 8: An overview of the entire navigation project.

Load the maps either in Garmin or OSM format and then convert them to QLandkarteGT format. Finally, save the maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks on a USB stick and read them into the netbook in your vehicle. You can then go on your way guided by GPS.