No, you don't need to have either Windows or Mac so as to update your Garmin Nuvi GPS (or Magellan, TomTom, and a few other people ). And no, you do not have to pay for updated maps either, even though your GPS is older or unregistered with the company.
I really did it, and I'm still as technophobic as I ever was. So if that technophobic sidekick can manage it, it's likely that some of my readers can. I do the FedEx Ground delivery driver item, and I have an old hand-me-down Garmin Nuvi I use on my path. Not for instructions, but just as a"rolling map" to tell me where I'm and roads are coming up as I travel.
http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/member.php?u=20001
The technique I'll show you here uses OpenStreetMap, a free and open-minded collaborative work. Maps are updated much more often than the official Garmin maps. I'm just going to write about the Garmin GPS because that's what I have and all I really know. But according to the excellent web page, it also works for various other brands.
I navigated to my home directory and made a new folder named"Garmin Nuvi." It has a subfolder named Maps.
I connected my Garmin Nuvi to my computer using a USB interface and it was automatically mounted, due to Thunar's awesomeness (Thunar is your Xfce file manager in Linux). Then I copied the map named gm approx.img, to home/robin/Garmin Nuvi/Map. You can achieve it in the terminal or only open your file manager as root and move the file from the Garmin to the"Map" subfolder. This is a security thing! You can now DELETE gm approx.img from the Garmin. I renamed this backup file gm approx-old.img. If I needed to restore it, I would give it back it's the original name.
Select and download the new maps from garmins-express.com. It's easy, just follow the prompts on the display to choose your map by continent, country, state, province, or customize your own. Should you customize yours, you'll need to input your email address and they'll notify you when it's compiled and ready to download. My old map is North America, nearly 3GB in size! Yikes! I picked just my own state for the new map because that is really all that I want and it is only a couple hundred MB in size. Easy peasy. And fast! The document you want for the Garmin Nuvi
Move that file to Garmin/New and extract it. 7-zip works, most default"archivers" work for decompressing zip files. After unzipping it, then you will have a file known as gmapsupp.img. For the Garmin, you must rename that file to gm approx. image. This is your brand new map!
Save a copy of your new gm approx.img in the /Garmin/New folder as another backup. When it's time, that can be moved to the Old subfolder. But until you are sure everything works fine, keep that old you around!
I really did it, and I'm still as technophobic as I ever was. So if that technophobic sidekick can manage it, it's likely that some of my readers can. I do the FedEx Ground delivery driver item, and I have an old hand-me-down Garmin Nuvi I use on my path. Not for instructions, but just as a"rolling map" to tell me where I'm and roads are coming up as I travel.
The technique I'll show you here uses OpenStreetMap, a free and open-minded collaborative work. Maps are updated much more often than the official Garmin maps. I'm just going to write about the Garmin GPS because that's what I have and all I really know. But according to the excellent web page, it also works for various other brands.
I navigated to my home directory and made a new folder named"Garmin Nuvi." It has a subfolder named Maps.
I connected my Garmin Nuvi to my computer using a USB interface and it was automatically mounted, due to Thunar's awesomeness (Thunar is your Xfce file manager in Linux). Then I copied the map named gm approx.img, to home/robin/Garmin Nuvi/Map. You can achieve it in the terminal or only open your file manager as root and move the file from the Garmin to the"Map" subfolder. This is a security thing! You can now DELETE gm approx.img from the Garmin. I renamed this backup file gm approx-old.img. If I needed to restore it, I would give it back it's the original name.
Select and download the new maps from garmins-express.com. It's easy, just follow the prompts on the display to choose your map by continent, country, state, province, or customize your own. Should you customize yours, you'll need to input your email address and they'll notify you when it's compiled and ready to download. My old map is North America, nearly 3GB in size! Yikes! I picked just my own state for the new map because that is really all that I want and it is only a couple hundred MB in size. Easy peasy. And fast! The document you want for the Garmin Nuvi
Move that file to Garmin/New and extract it. 7-zip works, most default"archivers" work for decompressing zip files. After unzipping it, then you will have a file known as gmapsupp.img. For the Garmin, you must rename that file to gm approx. image. This is your brand new map!
Save a copy of your new gm approx.img in the /Garmin/New folder as another backup. When it's time, that can be moved to the Old subfolder. But until you are sure everything works fine, keep that old you around!
