problems using the setup.exe program

problems using the setup.exe program

[alex wallis]

Hi list I am fairly new to cygwin and am writing to ask a few questions 
about selecting packages when installing cygwin.

My problem I am facing is this.

I am blind, as a result in order to use a computer I use a program called a 
screen reader. The screen reader allows me to do most things on the computer
such as reading and writing e mails, browsing the net and installing the 
majority of programs.

However there are problems with the cygwin installer. At the moment, the 
setup is useable until the package selection screen is reached. Now it is 
possible
to select to install a hole category such as editors or devl.

However, if I want to go and install only some packages from a particular 
category such as say quilt or subversion from devl it is not possible at the 
moment
to expand these categories and select individual packages using the keyboard 
and some other functions my screen reader has for working with the mouse.

I was wondering, would it be an easy task for the cygwin installer to be 
redesigned to make it more friendly to screen readers? as there are a large 
number
of people who are blind that I no of that use cygwin who face the same 
problem.

As at the moment, unless I can get someone who can see to help me, the best 
I can do is install hole categories of things just to get one package 
meaning
I waste several gbs of space on my hard drive.

Even if it is not possible to redesign the setup program, which I no would 
take time, given the fact I need to reinstall cygwin on my system, does 
anyone
no if it is possible to write some kind of custom setup script or ini file 
that would download only the packages and there dependencies I need to 
install.

As at the moment it isn't that easy for me to get access to sighted help, 
and I will end up wasting several gbs of space just to install a few 
packages.

Thanks very much for your help.

Alex. 

Re: problems using the setup.exe program

[Ralph Hempel]

alex wallis wrote:
> Hi list I am fairly new to cygwin and am writing to ask a few questions 
> about selecting packages when installing cygwin.
> 
> My problem I am facing is this.
> 
> I am blind, as a result in order to use a computer I use a program 
> called a screen reader.

<snip>

Fortunately, the latest version of setup for 1.7 allows
package selection from the command line.

This is a _huge_ (ok maybe not that big) deal for users
exactly like you.

You can do things like:

setup -q -n -D -L %SITE% %LOCALDIR% %PACKAGES%

if you set up environment variables for SITE, LOCALDIR, and
PACKAGES.

Note that PACKAGES should be a comma separated list of packages
you want to install with NO SPACES between entries.

All the dependencies ar looked after automagically.

Good luck!

Ralph