install-gis-ubuntu

This script builds on work undertaken by Robin Lovelace to provide a single installation script that would download and install all of the libraries needed to build a GIS/GISci-capable Ubuntu machine. His work was, in turn inspired by a post on installing commonly needed GIS software on Ubuntu and having recently got a new computer (well, a second hand Lenovo laptop) with Ubuntu freshly installed, I decided to make the process of installing GIS software on it as reproducible as possible. This is not intended to replace Robin's script, or the OSGeo Live distro... It's mainly been developed for managing our GeoCUP VMs that we use for teaching.

Core programs that can be installed are:

• QGIS, probably the most popular GUI-driven GIS in the world
• Recent versions of GDAL and GEOS C/C++ libraries
• A fully-fledged Python stack for Geographic Data Science, fully tested over at gds_env.

All this can be a pain to install manually, this script is designed to make your life easier.

Prerequisites

A working installation of Ubuntu.

Installation

First, make sure you have git installed:

sudo apt-get install git

Next, fire up a terminal, e.g. with Ctl-Alt-T, then enter the following:

git clone https://github.com/kingsgeocomp/install-gis-ubuntu.git
./install-gis-ubuntu/install-gis.sh

Getting Started

For Python, you have two choices:

1. If you want to run Python from the command line then you will need to activate the Python virtual environment before using it. I have created a clone of Dani's original env under spats (Spatial Analysis) for which you type:

source activate spats
python
>>>

from there you will be in the Python shell. Test if the geographic packages work, e.g. with:

import geopandas

2. You can also use the IPython notebook, as described in Python's documentation by changing the Kernel listed to spats from Python [Root].

For more, check out up-to-date tutorials, such as this one on GeoPandas.