Install and Configure Cygwin for ESPr Development

Two methods are presented here for installing Cygwin on a Windows machine using a "from scratch" approach, and deals with what packages to install to support running ESP-r. The first method uses material referenced from the document Installing Cygwin for ESP-r use on a Windows XP computer from the Energy Systems Research Unit at the University of Strathclyde. The second method requires a "local packages" directory from a previous Cygwin install. For first time users, method 1 is suggested.

Method 1

First, you will need to download the Cygwin setup executable. It is recommended for the time being that the 32-bit version is used regardless of what OS you are running. Once this is done, run the setup.exe. When the executable is launched you will be presented with a window that displays the software information and version number. Click "Next" and you will be brought to a window that asks for your installation type, shown in Figure 1. For this method we will be using "Install from Internet." Click "Next" to proceed.

Figure 1: Installation Type

You will then be prompted to input where you want Cygwin to be installed. This is completely personal preference, but the default should be adequate.

Figure 2: Installation Directory

Once you have defined a destination for your installation, click "Next" and you will be asked to provide a directory to place your install files, shown in Figure 3. This will create a library of the packages you selected to install with Cygwin and will make the process of installing Cygwin on other machines much simpler. As before, the directory you select is personal preference and the setup.exe will create a directory if it doesn't exist.

Figure 3: Local Package Directory

Click "Next" and set your connection type to "Direct Connection" shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Connection Type

You will then need to select a download site (mirror) for your Cygwin packages. Try to select a site that is located closest to you geographically. Uwaterloo is probably a good selection, but again this is left up to personal preference. A list of geographic location of different mirror sites can be found here.

Figure 5: Download Site

Now that a mirror site has been selected, the real fun begins. You need to select what packages you need. The following list of packages is meant for ESP-r development, however different package configurations exist for different end uses and are detailed in the reference material. The packages are divided into categories (i.e. Admin, Base, Devel, etc) and you can expand the trees to select what packages you want under each category or you can issue an install command for the entire category by clicking on "Default" next to a category and cycling through the install options. "Default" will install basic packages, "Install" will install all packages in a category, and "Reinstall" and "Uninstall" should be obvious.

Figure 6: Select Packages

If one of the categories is expanded, you should see something like in Figure 7. If there is a current installation on your machine, the current version of installed packages will appear in the "Current" column. The "New" column lets you toggle between "Skip" which doesn't install a specific package, the latest version of the package to install and the second latest version to install. If you already have a package installed there are additional install options that are not discussed here.

Figure 7: Expanded Category Tree

The packages required are as follows (as of 2011):

• Accessibility - optional
• Admin - toggle "Install" for category
• Archive - "Default" plus "p7zip", "zip" and "unzip"
• Audio - "Default"
• Base - toggle "Install" for category
• Database - "Default"
• Devel - toggle "Install" for category
• Doc - "Default" plus "man", "pages" and "xpdf"
• Editors - "Default" plus "nano", "nedit" and "vim"
• Games - optional
• Gnome - optional if all you want is the X11 version of ESP-r, otherwise see source material
• Graphics - "Default" plus "ImageMagic", "ghostscript", "jpeg", "libpng", "opengl","tiff" and image libraries
• Interpreters - "Default" plus "expect", "gawk", "m4", "perl"
• KDE - optional
• Libs - Install all packages except "guile" and "tetext"
• Mail -optional
• Math - optional
• Mingw - "Default"
• Net - "Default" plus "openssh", "ping", "inetutils" and "rsync"
• Perl - "Default"
• Publishing - "Default" plus "psutils"
• Python - optional
• Science - optional
• Security - optional
• Shells - "Default" plus "tcsh", "zsh", "xterm"
• System - toggle "Install" for category
• Text - toggle "Install" for category
• Utils - "Default" plus "bzip2", "clear", "cygutils", "file", "gnupg", "keychain", "ncurses", "patch", "time", "units", "util-linux"
• Web - "Default" plus "wget", "wdiff", "cadaver", "neon"
• X11 - toggle "Install" for category then try removing all 100 dpi fonts and "qt" items

Note: There are certain dependencies between packages and the setup.exe will automatically select or unselect packages for installation to reflect these dependencies. Do not be alarmed if selected packages change when you review your selections. The best method is to work from Accessibility to X11, then go back to ensure the packages that have been specifically referred to in the list above has not changed.

Click "Next" and Cygwin should begin to install your selected packages.

Method 2

This is the more kindlier, gentler method. Here you will be using local packages have been pre-selected for you from a previous installation of Cygwin. When you boot up the setup.exe, select "Install from Local Directory" in the "Installation Type" window.

Figure 8: Installation Type - Local

Same as in the first method, you will be asked to select a directory to install Cygwin to. You will then be prompted to provide a path to a local package directory, shown in Figure 9. This package directory can be obtained from a previous installation you have done or from SBES members and contains the packages you will need to run ESP-r.

Figure 9: Local Package Directory

You should now see a window similar to Figure 6. Ensure that the top of the packages tree does not say "No packages found." If it does than proceeding with installation will only result in a base installation of Cygwin that does not support ESP-r. You will need to ensure the path to the local directory is correct and that you are using the proper local packages.

Once the proper local packages are loaded in, click "Next" and Cygwin should install.