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mkgmap

Builds Garmin-format maps from OpenStreetMap data

What it does

Turns OpenStreetMap data into a Garmin .img map, drawn and routable by the rules of a style. Its default style already draws and routes paths, footways, tracks and bridleways and reads sac_scale and tracktype.

Why you would want it

It is how osm-garmin makes the maps QMapShack shows from your regions, with no download beyond the regions themselves.

Before it will work

mkgmap-splitter to cut a region into tiles first; osm-garmin runs both.

How it installs

  • apt: mkgmap

Known problems

It exits 0 while logging SEVERE errors, so osm-garmin checks for the map it should have written rather than trusting the exit status. The address index (--index, --housenumbers) needs upstream bounds files that have no published checksum, so it is not built. Debian's wrapper passes no Java options, so run by hand it gets the JVM's default heap, a quarter of the machine's memory; osm-garmin sets 6000 MB through JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS, which the wrapper does not override.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The mkgmap-dev mailing list (https://www.mkgmap.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/mkgmap-dev).

Source: catalog/packages/mkgmap.yaml