Skywoolf, with your background, you might find it easier to create your own maps using JOSM to download data and mkgmap to compile maps for your particular areas of interest. The OSM website has several wikis that will get you started.
Thanks but I don’t use any Microsoft OS PCs (I assume the software is for Windows).
I have spent many hours driving and making notes then updating the OpenStreetMap. Of course it is partly for my own benefit but also for the many others in this area that I know use it. If it was just for myself I wouldn’t bother at all and certainly would not spend even time and money creating maps only for myself.
Are you saying you don’t want all the work I have done or any future work I and others here intend to do? That seems the opposite of what this site is for.
If you don’t want any Philippines maps updated then maybe you should post a notice telling Philippines users they are not welcome or their input is not wanted.
What? Where’s this snide coming from? No one has ever said or even suggested that your data (or anyone else’s in the Philippines) isn’t welcome. Of course not. It’s exactly the other way around: a big part of this service and OSM as well is meant especially for developing countries as there are no/little/bad map providers for those areas. So please cool down man.
I’m sorry that the update of last week is not up to your standards…that happens as all the tools are in development so things change and occasionally break. Just report it as you’ve done before and it will be fixed (or not, it’s open source and everyone’s spare time after all). Seldom just tried to explain that everyone with special interests or demands have the chance to build their own maps that suit their needs better and helpfully pointed towards a source of more information.
So, bottom line: just keep adding roads and other stuff and I’ll try to keep the maps updated and if they’re not good enough then someone else (or you) might start providing them, but don’t get worked-up about an update that isn’t top notch. We’re all trying our best.
Actually, all the software needed to generate Garmin maps works under Linux.
Hey Skywoolf, I’m just another user, who doesn’t speak for anybody but myself. I was suggesting a technical fix if you want to create smaller tiles than those Lambertus is offering.
I don’t use Linux either except for web servers.
Sorry Lambertus but I was not complaining at all I was simply explaining what happened and asking for advice on what to do.
I have been building and maintaining web sites for 15 years so I know only too well what a thankless task it is and I do really appreciate your efforts as I am sure I have said more than once.
I was uptight because the impression I got from Seldom’s post was that I should go away and create my own maps rather than be part of your community and help with your maps.
I have never complained that your work is not good enough. I know how hard it is to do what you are doing and doing it free.
I don’t have any standard I ask you to keep up with. I simply ask for advice on what you think the problem was but was basically told to go away and do my own maps.
I also know from years of experience that people easily get the wrong impression form forum posts which is exactly what I did and what you did here so now I am just trying to clarify the issue.
Ok, thanks for clearing this up. Let’s forget this and move on 
Thanks.
I guess the answer to my question is that the map did not generate properly so I will just wait a week or two and download again. Actually I will be overseas for at least a month starting June 5 so maybe I will just try again when I get back.
Yes. You can take my scripts for the Finnish Garmin map, replace europe/finland.osm.bz2 with asia/philippines.osm.bz2, and adapt areas.list and mkgmap.args after running splitter without areas.list.
If there are problems near the borders (such as some border lines not included in the map extract), you may want to get in touch with Frederik Ramm. In a few iterations, I fixed the cutting polygon of Finland, so that all borders are included and no lake multipolygons (lakes with islands) are divided by the cutting polygon.
Thanks. I don’t think I am ready for that yet but will keep it in mind.
Just a notice: the server is severely overloaded. The harddisk is 95% full all the time and scripts are waiting for some space to clear before the next request will be handled. There are 111 requests in the queue currently so expect a long wait before you receive your notification email. Sorry, but there’s not much I can do. Ideas are welcome
Edit: May 30, 23:30 CET: there are 200 requests in the queue. Be patient people…
There is also a osm garmin map generated for the Phillipines: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/osmphil_garmin
There are currently 213 requests in the queue…
I selected some tiles of the Russian Federation and Mongolia. In two weeks I will go there again. The Russians have done a lot of work on their roads for Openstreetmap. I think there are more then twice the roads now in the database as last year.
So last year I was in Mongolia too. On one of the south roads there were about 200 km’s not covered by osm. So I just drove by trial and error and found a small road from Buutsagaan to Guulin and then to Altai. You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/2v4voq2
I consider it my nicest contribution to openstreetmap.
That was yesterday evening at nine o’çlock.
The email was sent this morning at 8 o’çlock. That’s fast! Thanks.
Someone could donate a harddisk!?
The files will be available for 48 hours. That is nice. But I just downloaded the requested files within half an hour of you sending/me receiving the notification email so why keep them any longer from there on?
If you put a reply link in the email “i’m ready: release the files” then you can free diskspace as soon as it is no longer needed.
http://…/routable/release.php?dir=27-05-2010&code=e74b2ea23456
That needs some programming indeed. (I have already ideas how you could implement that :)).
At further thought|: You could provide your webpage with some checkboxes for the kind of files to be produced. Now you produce all files. Just producing the needed files will save not only harddisk space but also processing time. I for example only just needed the .img file.
At first the service was CPU bound (no caching, cpu running 100% 24/7 not keeping up with demand). This was solved by adding smart caching (keep combinations that are requested often). So if a certain combination is requested again within the 48 hours window (e.g. Germany or the Netherlands) the countdown counter is reset. This allowed many more users and it worked like charm for a while, but demand and the planet file are growing and so is the load on the system. Currently the system is HDD bound, but a much bigger harddisk would make the system CPU bound again quite quickly judging by the Munin graphs. Also, the server is sponsored, no idea if it’s possible (or they’re willing) to add or replace a harddisk.
I changed the timeout from 48 hours to 42 yesterday, it gives the system a bit fresh air. Btw, bandwidth usage is 2TB+ per month…
That could be useful indeed as it would alleviate both key limiting factors
I don’t know how good or how expensive your hosting company is (if you are using one) but during the last 16 years of building web sites I have had some good and plenty of nightmares. I am currently using Hostgator and have to say they are exceptional in terms of value and support. I suspect they might even be interested in a deal where you could advertise them on the site to reduce hosting costs.
Just a thought you might want to check out.
Well, Oxilion is sponsoring this server and I’m certainly not complaining about their service level or commitment, in contrary. They also sponsor a development and tileserver for the Dutch OSM community, host the OSM forum and sponsor a server for my online routing website yournavigation.org. But, although they have been very supportive so far, I’m reluctant to ask for even more.
I believe that a combination of allowed high cpu usage and lots of traffic for little money is a rare combination in the hosting business. I also don’t have the illusion that somehow showing a few adds on the website is going to compensate for moving to a rented server at hosting company X. Or am I missing something?
It sounds like what you have is as good as it gets. Greencaps suggestions make good sense to me if they can be implemented.
An alternative might be to disable user-custom tile selection builds and focus on the pre-built sets of pre-defined regions, ie. a set of tiles for each country, or larger or smaller regions based on population and map density. Then the builds could be mirrored across a number of sites. When a user selects a pre-defined set, they could be given URLs for a mirror site from which to download instead. This should reduce bandwidth, harddisk space and CPU issues.
I would be happy to put a mirror of pre-built OSM maps for Garmin on my site - my site currently serves around 150GB of (non-OSM) garmin maps and I’m only paying 6USD/month.
This suggestion has popped-up a few times now but I’m very weary of it. If someone is just looking for a single country then they already have lot’s of choices. The novelty of this service is that you can have it combine and pre-package tiles from multiple countries in an relatively simple way. Going back to ‘only countries’ would be a huge step back IMHO and would make this service just one of many.I think that: “if it’s just about countries, then I think it’s best for the OSM community in each country to provide the Garmin maps”.
So, in short: going back to whole countries only is the last resort and I might just shut the operation down at that point. I do really appreciate the offer for providing alternative hosting though!