Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Content-return: allowed Date: Wed, 04 Sep 2002 14:36:55 -0400 From: "Zieg, Mark" Subject: Installing Cygwin on classified [non-networked] computers To: "'cygwin AT cygwin DOT com'" Message-id: <7424935D9B6CD311B72800508B108FD20D176742@emss03m08.orl.lmco.com> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT I've seen this question show up once or twice in the archives, but never found a completely successful process. I would have expected it to be fairly trivial, having installed Cygwin dozens of times via the network, and being moderately familiar with the way that setup.exe locally caches package downloads. However, when I and a co-worker actually got to the point of doing some non-networked installs (via CD-ROM and sneakernet), we were amazed at how many things managed to go wrong. Therefore, when I finally arrived at a working, repeatable, apparently robust procedure for conducting such installations, I wrote it down with more than the normal level of detail. I know that this topic has come up on the list before, so I wanted to share my process with anyone who finds it useful. Caveat: I have no doubt that the following process is excessive. I am confident that experienced Cygwin admins can find numerous opportunities for optimizing and consolidating this sequence of steps. Hopefully they will lend some commentary and produce a more-streamlined version. However, I really did have to struggle to come up with a sequence that seemed to work time and time again, which is why I took pains to document the exact steps I took, rather than the shorter series of steps which I thought might work, or which "worked once but I couldn't manage to repeat," etc. Q) How do I install Cygwin on a NON-networked [classified] computer? Basically, this is the approach originally proposed by Josh, but which initially didn't work for some reason or another. This has been tested on two computers (Mark's unclass box, and the Tango classified machine), and it worked flawlessly (but differently*) on both. Happily, it did not require admin rights on either box. 1. Make an install CD on an unclass box 1. If you already have Cygwin installed on your [unclass] box: 1. Backup any customized or valuable files from your Cygwin /home tree. You could just use the Windows Explorer to copy (or WinZip) your c:\cygwin\home folder, or (as I do) just manually copy a few files into ./My Documents/cygwin-backup or something. All I ever keep is my ~/bin directory, .bash_profile, and .vimrc. All my PRISM code is on the CVS repository anyway :-) 2. Totally, utterly remove Cygwin from your computer: 1. From the Windows Explorer, delete C:\cygwin 2. From regedit, delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Cygnus* and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Cygnus* 3. Delete any Cygwin links from your desktop, icon bar, or [Start]->Programs menu by right-clicking on them 2. Use IE to go to cygwin.com, and pick "Install Cygwin Now!" 3. Save setup.exe to your local hard drive (I put mine in ./My Documents/Received/Apps/Cygwin) 4. From Windows Explorer, run Setup.exe 1. On the welcome screen, note the version number in case of problems (these docs were written for Cygwin Setup ver. 2.249.2.5), then click "Next-->" 2. On the screen titled "Choose a Download Source" (which should have been labeled, "Choose an action"), select "Download from Internet" then click "Next-->" 3. On the screen titled "Select Local Package Directory", the default should be the same directory holding setup.exe. Accept the default, then click "Next-->" 4. On the screen titled "Select Your Internet Connection", Lockheed Martin staff should use "Use IE5 Settings", then click "Next-->" 5. On the screen titled "Choose A Download Site", pick any mirror you like (I use ftp://mirrors.rcn.net), then click "Next-->" 6. On the screen titled "Select Packages", I recommend the following set, which is slightly larger than "minimum", but remains "minimal" (italicized packages are optional, but may be used by future PRISM releases, or are simply recommended parts of a functional Unix-like installation): # devel @ gcc @ cvs @ make # doc @ cygwin-doc # editors @ vim # graphics @ opengl # interpreters @ perl # Net @ inetutils @ openssh # Shells @ tcsh # System @ setup # Utils @ bzip2 @ patch # XFree86 @ XFree86-base then click "Next-->" 7. At the dialog "Download complete", click [OK] 8. Setup should now exit 5. At this point, three things will be different about your computer: o You will now have a directory populated with Cygwin installer stuff (in my case, ./My Documents/Received/Apps/Cygwin), which should be around 55MB. o Your registry, should you care to check (don't bother), will have some empty "Cygnus Solutions" nodes. These could be deleted with no effect (but don't bother). o You will have a C:\cygwin directory, which will contain nothing but some /etc/setup log files. This is not a working Cygwin installation (you haven't actually installed Cygwin yet, only downloaded the pieces-parts), and could be deleted at this point with no effect (but don't bother). 6. Burn your Cygwin installer directory (./My Documents/Recieved/Apps/Cygwin, or wherever your setup.exe is) to a CD-ROM. o It's worth burning this CD-ROM before you re-install Cygwin on your own computer, because this is a fresh copy with no local path assumptions cached into setup.ini files, etc. o Before burning the CD, you may wish to drag other files on there as well, such as a PRISM tarball, and any custom Cygwin files you'd rather not have to manually recreate on the target machine(s), like your .bash_profile and .vimrc. o I use Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4 ("data CD"), and simply drag my desired folder into the CD layout window, click "Create and Close CD", and I'm done. o Adaptec Easy CD Creator gives me a warning dialog saying that I have a directory titled something like "ftp%2F%3A%3Amirrors.rcn.net%3A/blah-blah-blah" needs to be renamed according to Joliette naming standards, or something. I renamed that directory, using the dialog provided, to a simpler "mirrors.rcn.net" and had no further problems. 7. Once the CD-ROM is burned, closed, confirmed, and virus-checked, set it aside. You should be able to use it on your classified machine (later). 2. If you want to [re-]install Cygwin on your local [unclass] computer, use the Cygwin install directory on your hard drive (not the CD-ROM): 1. run setup.exe 2. On the welcome screen, click "Next-->" 3. On the screen titled "Choose a Download Source", select "Install from Local Directory", then click "Next-->" 4. On the screen titled "Select Root Install Directory", I recommend accepting the default (C:\cygwin), then click "Next-->". (Note that Josh, for instance, prefers to install his into C:\zcygwin, so that it is alphabetically toward the end of the root folder list, which can speed up "File Find" operations in some cases. However, I feel that the Cygwin installation process is so damnably fragile that I don't want to push it any more than I have to...:-) 5. On the screen titled "Select Local Package Directory", the default should be the same directory holding setup.exe. Accept the default, then click "Next-->" 6. On the screen titled "Select Packages", observe the following procedure. Next to the top-level category "All", there is a little loopy-loop icon. Click it, and hold your breath. After about 15-20 seconds, all categories should change to "Install". Click "Next-->" 7. When the installation process is done, click "Finish". 8. A whole bunch of empty black rectangles will flash across the screen. This is apparently normal. The longer they flash, and the more of them you see, the better a chance that you have a successful installation :-) 9. Test your local Cygwin install by running C:\cygwin\cygwin.bat (or any of the various links and icons to that file). 3. Use the CD to install on a classified box 1. Take the CD-ROM to the classified computer 2. copy the directory containing setup.exe, and it's contents, to the local [classified] hard drive o I used "C:\downloads\cygwin", for no particular reason o It may be possible to run the installer from the CD. I wasn't immediately successful with that approach, and didn't bother finding a way to make it work. 3. Now run setup.exe, exactly as described above for installing onto the unclassified PC 4. Done! 4. Done! * How was it different on the two boxes? On the classified box, the installer asked whether I wanted to install the app as an administrator (with username & password fields) or as myself. My unclass box never asked me that. I don't have admin rights to either box, and both are running Windows 2000, so I don't know what gives. Also, on my unclass box, when I run Cygwin I get the username "Administrator", even though I have no actual admin rights. It then gives me all sorts of hell about chmod and chown privileges, which are constantly annoying. However, on the classified machine, my bash shell comes right up as "mark", and all is hunky-dory. I don't know why. However, both systems are useable. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/