Re: suggestion/rant re: install method

["Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)" <lhall@rfk.com>]

At 11:06 AM 5/29/2002, Urdaneta, Alfonso E (N-Summitt Technologies) wrote:
>I just tried to download and install cygwin - and I have to say the install
>is highly frustrating.
>
>While I understand the motivation for the granular installer, I think that
>you should still provide the option of a monolithic download.  Unfortunatly
>many of the "mirrors" that I had to chose from only mirrored a subset of the
>modules that I needed to download for my full install.
>
>I don't know how many times I had to deal with dialogs telling me "download
>failed" and then choose a different mirror only to be told "the server has
>an older version of setup.ini than the one you were using, continue ?",
>forcing me to go through the installer over and over and over till finally I
>now have a cygwin install that is about 80% functional, and I have to go
>back over it and find all the pieces that didn't come down.
>
>One thing that you guys may not have considered is that the current
>"internet-only" method is unsuitable for classified environments.  I have
>worked (and I'm sure I'm not the only one) in a "secure" environment which
>does not allow a live connection to the internet.  In that sort of
>environment we are allowed to stick CDs into the machine to install
>software, but downloading is expressly prohibited.  
>
>By refusing to provide a "monolithic install" option that users such as
>myself can download and burn to CD to be used on non-networked machines, you
>have essentially made cygwin a non-option for us.  
>
>And please, any comments such "just plug it in for the download - a firewall
>is more than adequate protection" are worthless - those of use that do
>government work deal with beaurocrats, not reasonable technically compentent
>human beings.  
>
>Just an example - at my last government job I was not allowed to bring a
>CD-RW into the lab even though all the machines had _only_ CDROM drives. (
>yes, you read that correctly, read only drives NOT a writeable ones ).
>
>I'm also concerned about the wasted bandwith and the delays induced by
>downloading.  
>
>I have a stack of CDs that I have burned with the tools that I normally
>download such as gcc, xemacs, jdk, etc.  I use these whenever I setup a new
>machine.  It seems that downloading 200-300M worth of stuff per machine is
>ludicrous - especially if you are going to configure 20-50 developer
>workstations, which I have had to do.  Seems like an excessive drain on your
>mirror sites, and the internet in general.
>
>Alfonso.


You don't say but I'm going to assume that you're trying to download the
packages with the "Download from Internet" option.  Try the "Install 
from Internet" option.  This may result in less problems downloading (there
was some trouble with the "Download from Internet".  This may no longer be
an issue.  I'm not sure.  But try it.  Make sure you use the latest setup.exe
available from www.cygwin.com (2.218.2.9).  Note, I'm not actually asking 
you to do the install itself.  You can stop the process after the download
if you like.  Either way, you'll have a machine with a directory of packages
that you can then transfer to CD.  If this isn't satisfactory, there's always
wget.  Use it to mirror any number of sites you want.  Transfer the results
to CD.

As for issues with various mirrors, you can pick multiple mirrors at a time
with setup.  You know that, right?

Actually, all of these tid-bits of information are available in the email
archives.  It's worth your while to peruse what's there when you have
problems.


Larry Hall                              lhall@rfk.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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