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Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002 19:34:55 -0400
To: <jmpurser AT attbi DOT com>, <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
From: "Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)" <lhall AT rfk DOT com>
Subject: RE: Running Cygwin from a CD-ROM
In-Reply-To: <000401c26d8e$179f88b0$5bb9ff0c@perrin>
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Off the top of my head, no I don't recall a specific set of keywords that 
will help.  However, last week's discussion can be found simply by searching 
for "removable".  The initiating message is here:

http://sources.redhat.com/ml/cygwin/2002-10/msg00025.html

This discusses removable media in general (rather than just read-only media)
but you may find some of this information helpful.  Most of the other 
discussions about running from CDROM are quite old (at least to my 
recollection) which probably accounts for why you don't run across anything
obvious in the first few hits.  But, like I said, there's not much magic
here.  The first approximation of this is to simply copy your Cygwin 
installation to a CD, load the CD on your laptop, and use mount to point 
to your CD something like:

   mount -s -b <CD drive> /
   mount -s -b <CD drive>/bin /usr/bin
   mount -s -b <CD drive>/lib /usr/lib

This doesn't take into account the potential need to be able to change 
certain files though.  If you need this flexibility, then you'll want to 
set up an installation on your home PC that has the files you need to 
edit in a mounted file system and make the ones in the standard locations
symbolic links to those.  Then, on your laptop, you can create this mount,
make it point to somewhere on your disk, and copy versions of the 
files there.  You can then edit these files and write them back to your 
local disk yet still reference them in context of the installation on the 
CDROM.

Larry Hall                              lhall AT rfk DOT com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX


At 07:14 PM 10/6/2002, John Purser wrote:
>Yes, I want to set up a Cygwin installation on a CD-ROM.  I can use my home
>machine for that, then put the CD into the laptop when I need some of the
>tools.
>
>I did a search on CD-ROM and got over 100 hits, mostly related to
>installation and not finding the drive as I recall.  Do you remember a
>better phrase to search on?
>
>John
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc) [mailto:lhall AT rfk DOT com]
>Sent: Sunday, October 06, 2002 16:46
>To: jmpurser AT attbi DOT com; cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
>Subject: Re: Running Cygwin from a CD-ROM
>
>
>At 12:08 PM 10/6/2002, John Purser wrote:
> >Apologies if this is a much asked question.  I did not find it in an
>archive
> >search nor in the FAQ.
> >
> >I'd like to use Cygwin at work but am not allowed to install any software
>on
> >my computer (Windows 2000 Compaq laptop) nor am I likely to get permission
> >to run any of that hated (virus prone, pornography related, system
>crashing,
> >etc.) free software.  So I'd like to set up a Cygwin installation on a
> >CD-ROM for use when needed.  I don't need too much, mostly just some
> >networking utilities (tcpdump especially) and python along with bash to
>give
> >me a useful shell and to keep me from getting that "Command not found"
>error
> >every time I type in "ls".
> >
> >I know I'm skirting the limits of the law here but honestly would you like
> >to explain why you need Cygwin to a "system administrator" who doesn't know
> >what FTP means?
>
>
>No thanks.  I'll leave that to you! ;-)
>
>So what's the question?  Are you asking if this can be done?  The answer to
>that is - yes.  There have been many in the past that have wanted to do this
>(including me).  The list saw a question about this as recently as last
>week.
>The key is to manage the mounts and the files that may need write access
>(~/.bashrc, /etc/profile, /etc/passwd, etc).  So you might find another look
>at the email list archives instructional if this is your question.  But
>I don't want to jump to any conclusions on your request, since it's not
>clear what request you're making, if you actually are.
>
>
>
>
>Larry Hall                              lhall AT rfk DOT com
>RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
>838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
>Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX


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