Re: [Fwd: Please help with cygwin problems]

[Enoch Wu <enochw at scn dot org>]

On Sun, Mar 25, 2001 at 08:55:49AM -0600, Richard Raimi wrote:
> 
> I am a novice in downloading/WindowsME(my operating system), and perhaps
> everything else I need to know in order to download and install cygwin.
> Here is a list of my problems that I experienced when trying to use
> setup.exe to download cygwin from your ftp.freesoftware.com site.
> Please help if you can!
> 
> 1. I have an analog modem, and when I run setup.exe---the one with a
> link on RedHat's Cygwin page---the downloads go way too slow.  We're
> talking 4, 5 hours, and then it got killed by itself, don't know how.

When running setup, pick another mirror site from the setup menu. 


> 
> 2. The setup.exe documentation isn't clear to me.  What is *supposed* to
> happen? Is setup.exe supposed to first download a bunch of tar files and
> then untar them and do the installation?  Do you have to run setup.exe
> twice to do this, once to download, once to install?  Also, can someone
> explain the choices setup.exe gives you "Download from the internet",
> etc.

You can download then install or you can install from Internet. I picked install from Internet. It works extremely well. Before you download, it pays to check your dialup connection - run your web browser and decide for yourself if your dialup connection is running at normal speed.
If not. hang up and redial to see if you can get a better connection, or just pick another time of day or day of the week. If that does not work, pick another Internet Service Provider.  

> 
> 3. Setup.exe insists on downloading tar files of source code.  I don't
> need the source, only the executables.  How can I stop it from
> downloading source code?


Hmm, I believe that you can turn that off easily.  

> 4. After initially running setup.exe and having it get killed before it
> finished the downloads, I thought I'd just go back and start it up and
> choose which packages I wanted installed.  I tried clicking only
> "groff", for instance.  setup.exe then totally ignored the fact that I'd
> checked off only groff, and started to download all of the packages in
> latest and contrib----downloading packages that were already downloaded,
> paying no attention to the fact they were in place.  Any ideas how to
> control this critter?
> 
>             Thanks,
> 
>             Richard Raimi

Hmm. I had no problem picking up where I left off. every time. I think "Smart download" from Netscape may have played a part in this but I had not a chance to verify if that is precisely what was going on. Next time I'll try to verify that."Smart Download" enables one to pick up where any download was interrupted.

> 
> P.S.: If the alternative is to download "by hand" and not via setup.exe,
> I don't have a specialized ftp program on my WindowsME machine, I only
> can do "ftp <somewhere>" from the "Run" window from the Start menu.  Do
> you have any better suggestions, and free ftp software I should download
> first?
> 

Running setup.exe is the best way and is the only way for most people. Pick packages only to resume interrupted downloads. If one chooses only to download certain packages from the same site or others, then there is a compatibility issue that arises from the various versions out there. This is true even if one is dealing with Windows only software -- some of my Windows software can only run on Windows 95 second edition only.  

Also, some software packages on the setup list are dependent on others. Unless one is accustomed to installing Unix software, one will likely run into rough waters if one decides to install only certain packages. 

Hope that helps.
ew

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