Update: Semi-Automatic OS v. 2.1.0


This post is to inform you about the availability of the updated virtual machine: Semi-Automatic OS v. 2.1.0.

This new version of the Semi-Automatic OS (a lightweight virtual machine for the land cover classification of remote sensing images and GIS analyses) includes the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin 2.5.0 for QGIS 2.2.0, already configured along with all the required dependencies (SAGA GIS, GDAL, Numpy, SciPy and Matplotlib).

Semi-Automatic OS 2
The Semi-Automatic OS is based on Ubuntu 13.10 32-bit, and it is designed to require very little hardware resources. It uses LXDE and Openbox as main desktop environment.
This virtual machine can be useful for testing the Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin, or when the installation of the required programs in the host system is problematic.

The following is a guide for the installation of the Semi-Automatic OS in the open source program of virtualization VirtualBox.

The main installation steps are:
  1. Download VirtualBox open source software from here (select a proper version depending on your OS) and install it; at the end of the installation restart the system;
  2. Download the Semi-Automatic OS virtual machine (about 500 MB) from here;
  3. Extract the virtual machine content in a directory (it requires about 2.3 GB of disk space); the file is compressed in 7z format (if needed, download the open source extraction software from http://www.7-zip.org/);
  4. Download the file SemiAutomaticOS.vbox from here, and place it into the same directory of the  file SemiAutomaticOS.vmdk; double click on the SemiAutomaticOS.vbox which should load the virtual machine in VirtualBox;
  5. Start the Semi-Automatic OS by clicking the Start button;
  6. It is recommended to install the virtualbox-guest-utils in the virtual machine, from the Menu > Preferences > Synaptic Package Manager; it allows for a better integration of the Semi-Automatic OS in the host system, such as: the resize of the system window, or the folder sharing.

Alternative to point 4:
  1. Run VirtualBox and create a new Ubuntu virtual machine;
    • Click the New button;
    • Type a name for the virtual machine (for instance Semi-Automatic OS); select Linux and Ubuntu as Type and Version respectively; click Next;

    • Set the memory size; the more is the better, but this parameter should not exceed a half of he host system RAM (for instance if the host system has 1 GB of RAM, type 512 MB); click Next;

    • In the Hard drive settings select Use an existing virtual hard drive file and select the downloaded file SemiAutomaticOS.vmdk; click Create;

Attention! If the virtual machine cannot access to internet, double click the script virtualbox_network.sh that is on the Desktop, and click Execute.

The Semi-Automatic OS includes a sample dataset (Landsat 8 images available from the U.S. Geological Survey) that can be used for testing purposes.

Here, you can find several video tutorials (by Jorge Santos) about the installation and configuration of the Semi-Automatic OS.


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