Re: Cygwin setup - warning

[Tom Weichmann]

The Octave Windows Binary does not delete your old Cygwin installation, all
 it does is change your mount points.  The Cygwin 'mount' command basically
 maps windows directories to Cygwin directories.  So if your / was ==
 C:\cygwin all that happened was it was changed to / == C:\gnu\octave  or
 something simular.

If the version you downloaded gave you an icon for a bash prompt open a bash
prompt window.  If not open an octave window and type exec('bash') [or maybe
/bin/bash or /usr/bin/bash]

At the bash prompt use the mount command to remount your Cygwin's root
directory in the place where your old install was (ie C:\cygwin). Type mount
--help if you do not know how to use it.  But if I remember right it is
something like:

mount [windows dir] [Cygwin dir]

or
mount C:/cygwin /

If I remember right you have to use the Unix / rather then the windows \ even
in the windows path.  Also, I think that there is a flag that you might have
to set.  I think it is mount -b but I might be wrong.  I haven't looked at
Cygwin in a few years now.

Hope this helps,

Tom Weichmann

On Wednesday 11 September 2002 09:02 am, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> Tune Kamae <address@hidden> wrote:
> > I downloaded windows binary exe and installed into my Win2k.
> > I found out that the setup I had for Cygwin has been changed:
> > home directory, bashrc and profile?, etc.   I can not restore
> > the old setup I had, ie.
> > 1) in Cygwin, /usr, /etc, /tmp and /home are not recognized
> >     as such and have to give paths relative to cygwindrive.
> > 2) the profile in /etc is not read in,
> > 3) .bashrc in /home/myname is not read in.
> >
> > I uninstalled Octave but these changes are not restored
> > to the original.
> >
> > Do you know how I can adjust these?  I have only a year
> > of experience with Cygwin but know a little about linux.
>
> Dear Tune Kamae:
>
> AFAIK there is little you can do to restore your previous Cygwin
> installation, unless you are ready for a little bit of Windows hacking.
> Because the windows binary exe you have installed included a new Cygwin,
> it wiped out the Windows registry keys pertaining to your old Cygwin
> installation and replaced them by new ones. Now that you uninstalled
> octave, and thus implicitly also installed the new Cygwin incl. registry
> keys, all of Cygwin is rendered useless.
> If you are lucky, you might restore the old Cygwin by manually keying in
> the wiped out registry keys, but that is a risky business. If you want
> to give it a try, mail me privately (e-mail address in the header).
> You'd done better if you would have installed a binary Cygwin distro
> from e.g. Andy Adler. See the Octave-Windows web page for details:
> http://octave.sourceforge.net/Octave_Windows.htm#Overview
> BTW The Octave-Windows web page does contain a warning for your problem,
> unfortunately not for the latest windows binary.
>
>
> To Cygwin windows binary developers:
>
> I think this demonstrates clearly that it would be a Good Idea to make
> the newly released Octave-Windows binary (and for that matter, all such
> binaries) check for an existing Cygwin installation (targeted at the
> existence of certain Windows registry keys, as these are the vulnerable
> parts).
> Then, if an existing Cygwin is found, either:
> - a warning message should pop up saying that the existing Cygwin is
> about to be wiped out, offering an option to cancel the installation, or
> - (IMO superior) the octave installation should be adapted such that
> octave will be installed into the existing Cygwin, probably after some
> checking whether existing Cygwin components are sufficiently up-to-date.
>
> The IMO absolutely minimal option would be to just mention in the first
> installer screens, w/o any further checking, that an existing Cygwin
> installation is at risk to be wiped out.
>
>
> Philip Nienhuis
>
>
>
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Octave is freely available under the terms of the GNU GPL.

Octave's home on the web:  http://www.octave.org
How to fund new projects:  http://www.octave.org/funding.html
Subscription information:  http://www.octave.org/archive.html
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