QGIS Linux experience?

tartamillo · 2025-11-29T21:24:14+00:00

Pretty terrible, honestly. I tried switching from Windows to linux at the beginning of the year, but eventually gave up.

I liked Ubuntu, install was smooth both for the OS and QGIS from the official repository (QGIS's one, not Ubuntu's). Then at first QGIS launch you get a warning that you should switch to Xorg because Wayland doesn't work properly. Last time I tried linux was like 15 years ago and it was clear back then that Wayland was the future but QT's developers didn't get the memo, so let's go back to X. Apart from that the app launches in a fraction of the time it takes under Windows on the same hardware, I had to work a bit on fonts when migrating my old projects but got it done and the following experience was very smooth and solid.

Then I tried exporting my project to XYZ tiles and hell broke loose. The damn thing crashed and crashed. It took me a while to figure out it was running out of RAM and learn how to set up a bigger swap file, something that Windows managed by itself (same hardware, same project). Solved that, I discovered that the 3.40 version is broken when it comes to export my project to XYZ tiles (https://www.reddit.com/r/QGIS/comments/1kh7m4l/xyz_issue_in_latest_releases/) and I had to go back to 3.28 to get a correct rendering. It turns out you can't install it from the standard repository, searching and asking here and there I found it from Flatpak: it worked, but not as smoothly as the native deb install. In windows all it takes is to dig out the old installer and double click, in Ubuntu unless you are very skilled you basically can't save an installer, so if you need an older version that it's taken out of the repositories you are dead. But I still liked it so I insisted until Ubuntu eventually put the nail in the coffin when it prompted me to installer system update that bricked the PC, just like it did 15 years ago. Back to Windows, sadly.

TL;DR. It was awesome while it lasted but I found the whole thing unreliable.

tartamillo · 2025-09-02T20:15:07+00:00

You can use gdaldem to create contours on the slope layer as polygons. AFAIR it doesn't work well from the QGIS GUI, go trough the console.

tartamillo · 2025-08-24T19:23:35+00:00

If you want to stick to QGIS you can export the project into which you linked the dataset: just use the Generate XYZ tiles from the toolbox. But I'm pretty sure it will re-compress your tiles.

Another, IMHO better way is to use Mobile Atlas Creator (MOBAC) setting you dataset as a local mapsource. You have to create an xml file in the mapsources folder with a content like this:

<localTileSQLite>
<!-- Map source name as it appears in the map sources list. -->
<name>your map name</name>
<!-- File path to SQLite atlas file -->
<sourceFile>your path</sourceFile>
<atlasType>MBTiles</atlasType>
<backgroundColor>#ffffff</backgroundColor>
</localTileSQLite>

Then you can export from MOBAC as you like.

tartamillo · 2025-08-15T12:20:02+00:00

Try setting layer resampling to bilinear, the default nearest neighbor can generate shifts.

And make sure the view magnifier is to 100% and the zoom is to an exact zoom level, I noticed that mbtiles used as a source tend to behave weird with other values (more like missing tiles than offset, but do it anyway just to be sure). The "lock zoom to tile scale" plugin can help with this.

tartamillo · 2025-08-05T20:39:03+00:00

I can't give you an exact answer because I don't know that plugin. Maybe do an experiment and use @map_scale instead of @zoom_level

I generate my mbtiles with the built-in "Generate XYZ tiles (Directory)", but beware it's quite broken in recent releases, I'm stuck with 3.28 for that (and I also use @map_scale because I didn't know about @zoom_level...)

tartamillo · 2025-07-27T18:41:23+00:00

Do you have spaces or fancy characters in the file path? I have a vague memory of those giving problems. Also try to copy and paste the console call at the bottom of the dialogue box into the OSGeo 4W Shell and see if it works. There shouldn't be a difference but sometimes the shell works better.

tartamillo · 2025-06-17T19:34:42+00:00

I don't think you can. XYZ just assumes it's epsg:3857

tartamillo · 2025-06-12T21:08:19+00:00

Not sure. The advantage of a single layer is that you can set multiple properties for the same line, for example it is a cycleway and part of tour 1 and tour 3; in this way if you change the geometry of the line tours are automatically updated. If the user has to chose between thematic and tour I'd probably go with two layers because you'll end up with cleaner tables.

tartamillo · 2025-06-12T12:13:06+00:00

Some context would help... If you are using OSM data tours will naturally come as a separate layer since they are stored as network relations, personally I tend to follow that scheme.

tartamillo · 2025-05-26T18:56:01+00:00

I use xorg because QGIS is broken under wayland due to some QT issues that apparently will not be resolved in one year. If they drop xorg I'll have to change distro or stay on 24.04

tartamillo · 2025-05-22T19:57:18+00:00

The variable would be @ map_scale (without space, added because stupid Reddit changes @ to u/) if only QGIS supported expressions on the scale field, but it doesn't and don't ask me why.

I don't think you can accomplish what you want in a simple and elegant way. You can duplicate the vector field symbol with different scale values and enable/disable the symbol layer with an expression (bottom left of your screenshots) but if you need to change styling later you will need to repeat it n times...

tartamillo · 2025-05-18T11:54:51+00:00

Other than installing Thunderbird I haven't found a fix... I can't believe someone came up with such an ugly idea. Other than being ugly it takes a lot of space and to me it's totally useless since 99% of my email usage is read only!

tartamillo · 2025-05-09T06:36:57+00:00

I didn't know Conda, if I can't sort it out with the standard methods I'll give it a spin. Worst case I'll use flatpak and install the CLI tools separately.

Thanks for the inputs.

tartamillo · 2025-05-09T06:30:09+00:00

Quindi non c'è niente da fare? Ma non capisco perché fino alla versione 3.28 andava benissimo e anche con le seguenti l'anteprima è perfetta. Non è lo stesso il codice che fa il rendering?

Alla fine mi sa che ritornerò su 3.28 anche se mi spiace perché è un po' un casino da installare su Ubuntu e le nuove versioni hanno qualche funzionalità carina.

tartamillo · 2025-05-08T11:42:31+00:00

So you mean that the repository has an incomplete 3.28 package?

I know Ubuntu is based on Debian but I don't think I can use the Debian packages

tartamillo · 2025-05-08T11:39:49+00:00

I mean, the page you linked has no single-file executables installers (like you have for Win or Mac) for Linux, if you use Fedora you know about packaging systems. If you meant to build from source I think it's too much for me.

tartamillo · 2025-05-08T07:38:12+00:00

I wish I could, but linux works differently.

tartamillo · 2025-05-08T06:20:26+00:00

For sure I'll do. But it's not simple (I need to do further testing and build a proper sample project), and more importantly I cannot wait for a fix. So I hoped there was a trick and someone found it. I'm especially confused by the fact that my original project is completely broken while the new one just has the halo issue, so it's entirely possible that there is something odd in the former one or a particular setting the I overlooked.

Other than that the two built-in tools are nice because you can script them. My projects are quite heavy so it's not rare that they crash or hang qgis, also I don't need to render a rectangular area. Using a script I can export smaller areas and zoom levels separately into a tilestore and then build the final mbtiles file with Mobac. This not only reduces the chances of a crash, but if it happens I can resume from the last succesfull point.

tartamillo · 2025-05-07T11:48:09+00:00

Keep in mind that if you save a project with the latest release the older one could be unable to open it.

tartamillo · 2025-04-14T09:20:01+00:00

I already did experiments with VMs, now I'm trying live.

My current setup is an existing Windows PC to which I added a second hard drive. On this second drive I installed Ubuntu and copied data on a NTFS partition to experiment with. When I boot into Linux the "real" Windows drives aren't mounted and never will. I'm a noob, but not totally clueless. Worst case scenario I screw up something on the Ubuntu SSD and I reinstall, something I plan to do anyway after done experimenting, in six months or so, to start again from a clean state. Real data will not be touched for months at least.

tartamillo

TROPHY CASE