Re: Packaged X Server for easy use

[Christopher Faylor <cgf-no-personal-reply-please at cygwin dot com>]

On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 04:39:50PM -0500, Joseph Miller wrote:
>I would be more than happy to work within the cygwin release for this project.  
>I do not pretend that I would want to maintain this project for an eternity 
>myself and I would prefer a larger community to work within.  How do you 
>forsee that this should integrate with the Cygwin project?  I have thought 
>about an alternate version that would call XWin from inside the Cygwin 
>installation for those who already have it installed, but I just haven't done 
>it yet.

Cygwin packaging is discussed in the cygwin-apps mailing list.

You could start there by discussing methods for getting a installation
which just installed what you consider to be the minimal amount needed.

There is absolutely no reason why you have to start a cygwin shell in
order to start xwin.  You do need ash or bash if you want to start X via
startx, though.

>As to the mounts, I had some problems with getting XWin to run without them 
>because of /tmp requirements and font paths.  How would I call XWin without 
>the mounts and get those to work?  Please advise.

Well, yes, you do need some mounts but the normal user doesn't need to
worry about them when they are installing cygwin.  Installation should
just require clicking next a few times, choosing a mirror, and then clicking
on "something" which installs the minimal x package you are envisioning.

Btw, I wasn't being facetious when I mentioned the allure of working by
yourself.  Working with other people on projects like this can be quite
frustrating.  Other people often don't respond at all, or respond days
or weeks after you've made a point.  Then, their responses may indicate
that they haven't really read what you've written or that they haven't
really thought your argument through.  Or, they have another agenda or
another way that they think things should be done.

That will undoubtedly be what you're getting yourself into here, but if
you persevere and, especially if you are willing to make coding changes,
you should be able to affect change.

If you do go over to cygwin-apps you may notice a thread that I started
called "setup.exe sucks".  I've gotten a little frustrated over the stalled
development in setup.exe land and over the usability issues that people
keep raising.  So, this may be the time to hop onboard if I can really
get a new course charted for the cygwin installer.

cgf