Hints for Setting up Cygwin

Welcome. This page has instructions for setting up Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for Windows, including such tools as gcc, (X)Emacs, latex. It is free and open source (supported by RedHat at some level). Using cygwin, its X server, and a virtual desktop called JS Pager can make using Windows an enjoyable experience (or at least pretty close).

Note: Cygwin comes with an X server (what you need to display X windows on your computer). This package however does not have a current maintainer and sometimes has issues. I recommend installing XMing, an open source X server that shares the same code base as the Cygwin X server. (I would recommend downloading Xming and the XMing-fonts).

In this web page, I've listed a lot of different options. All you need to do is follow the How to Start directions. You can then come back in install any other options as you want them.

• How to Start
• Useful Tidbits
• Useful files
• Backup Your Cygwin installation
• Available Software
  • Kerberos, etc
  • Emacs and Tramp
  • Mrxvt
  • Perl Tk
    • Console GUI

How To Start

• Go to http://cygwin.com/
• Save the installer http://cygwin.com/setup.exe (I always rename it cywgin_setup.exe)
• Run, click next, choose "install from Internet"
• Keep clicking next until you get to 'Available Download Sites', choose 'mirror.mcs.anl.gov'
• The next screen will let you choose which packages: leave it as is
• Keep clicking 'next' until everything's done.
• You _may_ have to reboot after finishing
• Rerun install. Keep clicking next until you get to choose which packages. Click '<>Default' next to All ONCE - after a second it should read 'Install' (read the second tidbit below before this step).
• Click next until everything done.

Note: The cygwin.bat icon starts up a bash session in the cmd.exe program. Personally, I think this is a lousy window to work in. On my computer, I use a shortcut to start an mrxvt window using a bash script that I've included in my useful files. Note: I have been having problems getting this shortcut to work on other people's computer. mrxvt.bat (assuming you put mrxvt.exe in c:\cygwin\bin) works.

Useful Tidbits

1. You may want to disable your virus checker when running the Cygwin installer. Don't forget to re-enable it when you're finished installing.
2. If you are planning on installing CERN's Root, I recommend going to the 3.4.4.3 version. Root 5.14 (or later?) should be immediately compatible with this release. You may have to build the earlier versions from sources.
3. Cygwin doesn't like it if there is a space in your Windows username. If you have a space, do the following after installing Cygwin:
   • Edit /etc/passwd (using either emacs, vi, or even Windows Wordpad)
   • Find your entry (it will start with your windows username)
   • Take the space out of your username (1st entry) and your home directory (2nd to last entry).
   • Quit all Cygwin
   • Use Windows Explorer to rename your home directory (C:\cygwin\home\cplager in my case)
4. Cygwin doesn't like spaces in directories. To have access to my program files, I created a 'mount point':
   cygwin> mount -f -s -b "c:/Program Files" "/mount/programfiles"
   You only need to run this command once.
5. To make access easier to my documents and the decktop, I made the following soft links in my home directory
   cygwin> ln -s 'C:/Documents and Settings/cplager/Desktop' Desktop
   cygwin> ln -s 'C:/Documents and Settings/cplager/My Documents' Documents
   

Useful Files

• Download this tgz file somewhere cygwin can see it (e.g. c:\cygwin\home\yourname\useful_charles.tgz).
• Make a temporary directory and move the file there
  cygwin> mkdir junk; mv useful_charles.tgz junk/
• Untar the file
  cygwin> tar xzf useful_charles.tgz
• Look through the files and take what you want.
  • A lot of the files have /home/cplager hardcoded. Please makes sure you run fixHomeCplager in the bin directory to change these to /home/yourusername.
• The .emacs file is a good place to start. You either need to copy the emacs/ directory to your home directory
  cygwin> cp -r emacs ~/
  or edit the .emacs to comment out the all references to tramp.

Backup Your Cygwin installation

After you are happy with your Cygwin installation, it is a good idea to back it up so that if you anything happens, or if you want to move it to another computer as is, you can.

• Save the mount points
  cygwin> mount -m > /usr/bin/mountCommands.bat
• Save the C:\cygwin directory (e.g., burn it to DVD, save it to another hard disk, etc.)
• If you need to re-install Cygwin:
  • copy the backup to C:\cygwin
  • run C:\cygwin\mountCommands.bat

Available Software

• Root - you can download precompiled binaries. I recommend the win32gcc (native cygwin) version (although they don't).
• Cern Lib (including PAW; see also SLAC's version).
• Visit Axel Naumann's download directory which has a lot of good HEP software
• Kerberos
• Emacs and tramp
• Mrxvt
• Perl Tk

Kerberos, etc.

Note: If you have set up Kerberos previously on your computer without a Cygwin install, you will need to follow the directions in the cygwin section.

Emacs and Tramp

To install tramp, copy the emacs/ directory from the tgz above. You will want to add the following lines to your .emacs file:

;;; Tramp stuff

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs/tramp/lisp/")
(setq tramp-default-method "scpx")
(require 'tramp)

To use tramp, you open a file much like normal (i.e. <ctrl>-x <ctrl>-f), but you need to specify the file name slightly differently:

<ctrl>-x <ctrl>-f /[cplager@fcdflnx2.fnal.gov]localpath
<ctrl>-x <ctrl>-f /[cplager@fcdflnx2.fnal.gov]/absolute/path

Do not forget the / at the beginning of the filename.

Visit my Emacs page to see more useful tips about Tramp in particular and emacs in general.

Mrxvt

rxvt is an xterm-like terminal program. mrxvt is built from the same code base, but adds tabs (similar to konsole terminals in KDE). It turns out building these for Cygwin (assuming you have the X11 libraries installed) is very easy.

1. Visit the mrxvt home page
2. Read the README file.
3. Download the source.
4. Untar the source file
   cygwin> tar xzf mrxvt_0.40.tar.gz
   
5. Configure as shown in the readme file
   cygwin> ./configure --enable-everything --disable-debug
   
6. Make and install
   cygwin> make && make install

You should be good to go. Here are the entries I have in my ~/.Xdefaults file:

!##############
!#  mrxvt
!##############
mrxvt*font:                  6x13
mrxvt*foreground:            white
mrxvt*background:            black
mrxvt*scrollbarStyle:        rxvt
! These keys are used by emacs, disable them
mrxvt*hotkey*Dummy:          Ctrl+Shift+underscore
mrxvt*hotkey*Dummy:          Ctrl+Shift+plus

Installing Perl Tk

Note: As of December 2005, you can download Tk from any Cygwin mirror using the cygwin installer. I recommend trying this first before building your own.

Perl Tk is a useful GUI addition to the Perl language. In my Useful files tar ball, you will find a few scripts that take advantage of this package. It is, however, by no means necessary, so feel free not to install it (or install it later). Note: I have always installed Perl Tk 8.00.024. There are newer versions; I just haven't tried them. If you're curious, please try and let me know how it goes. If you want to be lazy and play it safe, follow the directions below. I'm assuming that you have a full cygwin installation as shown above.

• Open a new Cygwin window and fix a problem with Perl
  cygwin> cd /usr/X11R6/lib
  cygwin> ln -s libX11.dll.a libX11.a
  Close the window.
  Note: I've been told that you don't need to do this step anymore, but I haven't verified that yet.
• Grab the source of Tk-800.024.tar.gz and save it somewhere cygwin can see it (e.g. c:\cygwin\home\yourname\Tk-800.024.tar.gz).
• Open a window in Cygwin and untar and feather it:
  cygwin> tar xzf Tk-800.024.tar.gz
• Log into the new directory
  cygwin> cd Tk800.024
• Read the README.cygwin file
• Configure the makefile as specified in the readme file
  cygwin> perl Makefile.PL x
• Start the build
  cygwin> make
• It has always worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you. If the build is successful, install it
  cygwin> make install

Console GUI

• Take all files in the bin/ directory and copy them to your bin dir. Copy also the .console.properties file (a directory up) to your home area.
• I have the shortcut I use to start the console script (Console.lnk). Right-click on the link and save it to your desktop. You will have to edit this shortcut to point to your version.
  • Right-click on the icon and choose properties.
  • Edit the Target and replace /home/cplager with /home/yourname
• The shortcut also assumes that run.exe is in /bin, so copy it there
  cygwin> cp /usr/X11R6/bin/run.exe /bin/
• Summary of Commands:
  • l/L - start Local xterm
  • x/X - start xterm as you on machine selected
  • o/O - start xterm as other on machine selected
• The console GUI is configurable. Edit the .console.properties file for details.
  • If your cygwin username does not match your FNAL username (a bad idea, but it happens), you will need to:
    • Add a line in the .console.properties
      - user fnalUserName
    • Edit bin/kinit.pl file where you add what is in red
      system "/bin/kinit -n -l 100d fnaluser@FNAL.GOV";