Navigation Setup

Map display and routing are two independent features, each configurable as offline or online. You can mix and match freely.

Two independent choices

Offline (local) Online (internet)
Map display Local .mbtiles file Online tile server
Routing Local Valhalla + routing maps Remote Valhalla server

Map Display

The map display setting controls which tile source is used to draw the map on screen. It has no bearing on whether you can navigate - that's routing (below).

Switch between modes: Menu → SettingsMap & NavigationMap Type

Offline display tiles

Offline display uses a local .mbtiles file (an SQLite database of pre-rendered map tiles). Once installed, it works without any internet connection.

Get a tile file for your region:

Typical file sizes: city tile file ~2–16 MB, individual German state ~20–140 MB, all of Germany ~680 MB.

The tile file must be placed at /data/maps/map.mbtiles on the scooter. The easiest way to transfer it is UMS mode (see below).

Coverage note
Pre-built tile packages currently cover all 16 German states. To use offline maps elsewhere, generate tiles with maptool from any OpenStreetMap extract.

Online display tiles

Online display fetches tiles from an internet tile server as you pan the map. No local file needed, just an active internet connection. Selected automatically if no local tile file is present and the map type is set to Online.

Routing

Routing provides turn-by-turn navigation. It is completely independent of which tile source you use for display. LibreScoot uses the Valhalla routing engine.

Local (offline) routing

Local routing runs Valhalla directly on the scooter's dashboard computer. It requires Valhalla routing tiles, a separate dataset from the display .mbtiles file. Routing tiles contain the road graph that Valhalla needs to calculate routes.

Download routing tiles for your region from the LibreScoot Valhalla Tiles releases. Per-state .tar archives are available for all 16 German states.

Typical archive sizes: small city-states (Bremen, Hamburg, Saarland) ~20–60 MB, most states ~100–340 MB, Bavaria ~910 MB.

Transfer the archive via UMS mode or SSH, extract it into the valhalla/ folder on the scooter's data partition, then restart the Valhalla service. When Valhalla is up and has data loaded, the Navigation menu becomes available on the dashboard automatically.

Coverage note
Pre-built routing tile packages currently cover all 16 German states. For other regions, you can build Valhalla tiles from an OpenStreetMap PBF extract using the standard Valhalla build process.

Remote (online) routing

You can configure LibreScoot to use a remote Valhalla server instead of running one locally. The routing endpoint defaults to local (localhost:8002) but can be changed via lsc:

lsc settings set dashboard.valhalla-url https://your-valhalla-server.example/

Use lsc settings list to see the current value.

Transferring files via USB (UMS mode)

USB Mass Storage mode exposes a virtual drive on your computer. Copy map files to it, eject, and the scooter installs them automatically. See the UMS mode guide for full instructions.

In short: enter UMS mode from Settings → System → Enter UMS Mode, connect USB, copy your .mbtiles and/or *tiles.tar files into the maps/ folder, and safely eject.

Verifying it works

After transferring files, confirm navigation is active before riding:

  1. Open the menu (double-tap left brake). If Navigation Setup is no longer listed, your configuration is complete
  2. If it is listed, tap it to see which component is still unavailable (routing engine, offline display maps, or both)
  3. On the scooter over SSH, check Valhalla is running:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "systemctl status valhalla"
  4. Test routing directly:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 \
      "curl -s http://localhost:8002/status | python3 -m json.tool"
    A healthy Valhalla returns {"version": "...", "tileset_last_modified": ...}. If it returns an error, Valhalla has no tiles loaded. Check that extraction landed in /data/valhalla/.
  5. Confirm display tiles are found:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "ls -lh /data/maps/"
    You should see map.mbtiles.

SSH transfer (advanced)

If you have SSH access, you can transfer files directly without UMS mode. The DBC (dashboard computer, at 192.168.7.2) is only reachable via the MDB as a jump host:

ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2

Display tiles

  1. Copy the .mbtiles file to the DBC:
    scp -J root@<mdb-ip> tiles_berlin.mbtiles root@192.168.7.2:/data/maps/map.mbtiles
  2. On the DBC, restart scootui to pick up the new file:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "systemctl restart scootui"

Valhalla routing tiles

  1. Copy the .tar archive to the DBC:
    scp -J root@<mdb-ip> valhalla_tiles_berlin.tar root@192.168.7.2:/tmp/valhalla_tiles_berlin.tar
  2. On the DBC, create the target directory:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "mkdir -p /data/valhalla"
  3. Extract the archive into it:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "tar -xf /tmp/valhalla_tiles_berlin.tar -C /data/valhalla"
  4. Clean up and restart Valhalla:
    ssh -J root@<mdb-ip> root@192.168.7.2 "rm /tmp/valhalla_tiles_berlin.tar && systemctl restart valhalla"