OSRM Install on SUSE13.1

Created by: Lester Caine, Last modification: 03 Dec 2013 (13:40 GMT)

The original notes on installing OSRM on an SUSE setup can be found at OSRM Install on SUSE12.3, but the move to SUSE13.1 also dovetails nicely in with a switch from Apache2 over to Nginx as the web server. Since the original OSRM setup and data is somewhat out of date, a clean install is being undertaken.

Starting point is the OSRM website code on github which is cloned on our local repo which will monitor all the local changes to the code base. This is now installed on one of the RDM servers as http://osrm.rdm2.co.uk/main.html but this will change to osrm.myhomecloud.co.uk once the DNS is changed.

I've not found any notes on configuring the website setup, but it is fairly obvious from the OSRM.config.js file in the root directory.. The initial configuration is set by the ONLOAD_ variables, and I've switched to ZOOM_LEVEL 7 and a location of 53,-2 as a reasonable overview of southern England

The file also defines the routing engine, geocoder and tile servers. Until we have a working routing engine, the project-osrm.org server's demo service will be retained. At this stage the plan is to play with the web interface and routing is a secondary function. The idea is to provide an alternative embeded map for use on third party websites. This willl eventualy weave seamlessly with providing directions or local information, at which point the routing becomes important. The current nominatim lookup my need to be augmented with a better local information database which will also be investigated.

The first stage is to provide links to the various tile sources that have already been identified Tile Server Sources. While intended mainly to provide location maps for websites, another area of interest is to provide historic mapping. We already have a growing database of genealogical data such as http://phpgedview.rdm2.co.uk and the intention has always been to provide maps to go with that data. The original map viewer is no longer fully functional, so a switch to an OSM based makes sence rather than wasting more time on the legacy applications.