Cygwin Installation and Configuration

Internal

• Cygwin

Relevance

• Windows 10/cygwin 2.5.2

Prepare the Download

It is good practice to keep the original cygwin download, so in order to create a self-contained installation, create the Cygwin Root Directory in advance (C:/cygwin), create the archive directory in advance (C:/cygwin/archive) and store the downloaded artifacts there.

Installation

• Go to http://www.cygwin.com/, locate setup.exe (setup-x86_64.exe) and download it locally in C:/cygwin/archive.
• Start the installation by executing setup.exe from its location.

Important If the current user is not part of the Administrators group, right click on the icon and choose "Run as administrator". For more details see Windows Administration

• "Install from Internet (downloaded files will be kept for future re-use)"

• Root Directory: C:\cygwin

• Install For All Users

• Local Package Directory: C:\cygwin\archive

• Direct Connection

It is very important to install everything (X support, rxvt, etc.). In order to Install "everything", click on the root of the tree ("All"), and then click the chasing arrows until "Install" shows up. Make sure that all packages automatically switch to "Install", while being careful that the "Version" radio button (upper right corner) is set to "Current". There's a small lag between clicking on "Install" and actually seeing the result.

• Verify that rxvt is selected by navigating to "Shells" and making sure rxvt or a variant is selected.

Possible Problems at this Stage

• If the Windows account starts with a capital letter "Ovidiu", the cygwin user will be the same. If I want to change to "ovidiu", I have to:

1. modify /etc/passwd and
2. move /home/Ovidiu to /home/ovidiu

• Vista Quirks
• If seeing cygwin library errors ("fatal error - unable to remap"), go to Troubleshooting - Fatal Error Unable to Remap.

Create the Convenience Links

cd /
ln -s /cygdrive/c c
ln -s /cygdrive/b b
cd ~; 
ln -s /c/tmp tmp

Setup Terminals

Setup Terminals

Setup .basic

Setup Linux Convenience Aliases.

Check Out and Install Standard Utilities

Follow installation instructions available in the https://github.com/NovaOrdis/shell-tools repository, specifically https://github.com/NovaOrdis/shell-tools#installation

Install ssh Identity (optional)

cd
mkdir .ssh
chmod go-rwx .ssh/
cd .ssh/
vi id_rsa
# copy in here the content of /Personal Archive/ssh identity/id_rsa
chmod go-rwx id_rsa

Set up a sshd server (optional)

Set up a sshd server