Re: Cygwin setup - warning

[Agustin Barto]

Someone told me that already about my version. I responded: "My version is 
intended to be used in a non-cygwin enviroment." I'll try to include a 
warning about that problem, but right now I barely have time to sleep. (I 
have to deliver a language specification and compiler by friday).

btw, I changed my version to use the octave-forge distribution (instead of my 
own compiled version), the latest cvs version of gnuplot (compiled with 
mingw) and some minor ui tweaks (things like using the run command to call 
rxvt). It works great and the package is 2Mb smaller.

The new URL is:

http://www.efn.uncor.edu/departamentos/computacion/materias/informatica/software/octave+octave-forge_install.exe

On Wednesday 11 September 2002 11:03, you wrote:
>
> 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, butt hat 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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