Installing Cygwin

There already is a wide range of information on the web regarding how to install and use Cygwin for Microsoft Windows. These notes outline my experience for a quick installation of Cygwin in order to run FSL 3.3 and software requiring the xview toolkit compiled for Cygwin.

Update - since November 2022, Cygwin only supports 64 bit Windows, while the 32 bit version is required for the xview toolkit and old FSL 3.3 version. This page has been updated for installation of both the updated 64 bit version, and the 32 bit version as of November 2022.

By default, Cygwin installs a minimal system without graphics. The Cygwin FAQ does not recommend installing all packages. The notes below describe a two stage approach to installing Cygwin; first installing the default selection and then installing a sub-set of the remaining packages to enable graphics to work. On the 32 bit version, this seems to allow FSL command line tools to run along with the XView toolkit.

Install the Default

• Download and run setup-x86_64.exe from www.cygwin.com for the 64 bit version.
• (For the 32 bit version, download and run setup-x86.exe Then create a shortcut to the file. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties. Append --allow-unsupported-windows to the text already in the Target field and select OK. Use this shortcut to install the 32 bit version.)
• Select Install from Internet. Choose a Root Directory for the installation, e.g., c:\cygwin64 or c:\cygwin32 and a different Local Package Directory for the downloaded installation files, e.g., c:\temp\cygwin
• Confirm your network settings; Use System Proxy Settings should work.
• Choose a local mirror, e.g., https://www.mirrorservice.org
• (For 32 bit installation, manually type in the following mirror in the User URL field: https://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/sourceware.org/pub/cygwin-archive/20221123/ )
• When the Select Packages window appears, all options should already be set to Default. When installing for the first time, accept this selection by clicking Next.
• The packages will be downloaded and installed. Finish the setup program.

At this stage, I suggest starting Cygwin from the Start menu, to resolve any initial problems before installing further packages.

Initial Configuration

• Start Cygwin by using either c:\cygwin\cygwin.bat or the desktop icon. A Cygwin Bash Shell text window should appear.
• One common problem is if Windows user names were originally entered containing a space. These usernames have been inherited by Cygwin, for which spaces in usernames are problematic. Check your username by typing whoami in the Cygwin Bash Shell. If the username contains a space, following the remaining instructions in this section and read the FAQ (Question 2.16). If the username does not contain spaces, skip to the next section.
• In the cygwin terminal type mkpasswd and then quit the cygwin terminal window.
• Start Notepad under Windows and load c:\cygwin\etc\passwd
• Find the line that starts with the username displayed above. Delete any spaces in the name. Also, towards the end of the same line will be a portion such as /home/User Name. Again, delete any spaces in the User Name
• Using Windows, browse to c:\cygwin\home and find a folder names after the same username. Rename this folder to delete any spaces.
• Close all Cygwin windows and start Cygwin again, as above, to check that and Cygwin Bash Shell window still appears without displaying any error messages.

Installing Additional Packages

In addition to the default Cygwin packages, I suggest installing the following packages. They should be sufficient to allow FSL to be installed, to allow the XView toolkit to be built and run, as well as providing a few basic networking tools to allow Cygwin to connect to remote UNIX servers and run graphics programs remotely.

Run setup.exe again and proceed as before until the Select Packages stage. Change the View from Pending to Category. Expand the following main categories and select the following packages by clicking on Skip until the highest package version number is displayed. In some cases, the packages listed below may already be selected, in which case is fine to keep them. Some of the packages may be found in several main categories; it doesn't matter from which category they are selected.

It might be wise to right click on setup-x86.exe and select Run as administrator to avoid installation issues, especially regarding fonts. Also re-installing fonts may fail if /etc/X11/fontpath.d gets deleted but not recreated.

• Archive
  • p7zip
  • par2
  • unzip
  • zip
• Devel
  • gcc-g++
  • imake (if not present then check in X11)
  • make
• Editors
  • vim
• Graphics
  • gnuplot-x11
• Libs
  • libgtk2.0-devel (if not present then check in X11)
  • libgtk3-devel (if not present then check in X11)
  • libjpeg-devel (if not present here then check in Devel)
  • libpng-devel
  • mesa
  • zlib-devel (if not present here then check in Devel)
• Net
  • openssh
  • ping
• Shells
  • tcsh
• Utils
  • ccrypt
  • fdupes
  • patchutils
  • util-linux (if not present, then check in Base, or select more from the Text category)
• X11
  • xclock
  • xhost
  • xinit
  • xorg-docs
  • xterm
  • xorg-x11-fonts-dpi75
  • xorg-x11-fonts-misc
  • xview-devel (32 bit version only, even then does not work with last 32 bit version)
• X11 (for old installations prior to 12^th November 2008)
  • xorg-x11-devel
  • xorg-x11-man-pages

Accept any warning messages to install dependant packages (i.e., if a Resolving Depenencies window appears, ensure Select required packages (RECOMMENDED) is selected then click Next). If you find that the packages listed above are not sufficient to run FSL or programs using the XView toolkit, please email me with the extra packages required.

Additional Configuration

For new installations from the internet

Cygwin no longer comes with a globally configurable method to start a X11 graphical window (in multiwindow mode). More information is in the Cygwin/X FAQ about starting Cygwin/X. Despite the concerns, the old method of starting X11 works most of the time. To use this, one solution is to download my CygwinX.bat script and copy this into the c:\cygwin subdirectory. Start Cygwin by double-clicking on this batch file.
You can create a shortcut to this batch file (e.g., on the desktop) in which case you can select Properties of the shortcut, and choose to Run in a Minimised DOS window. You can also change the icon.
If, when runnning this batch file, only the DOS window is created but no X11 xterm appears, use Windows Task Manager (Ctrl Alt Del) to kill the XWin.exe process, and then run the batch file again.

For older Cygwin installations (unsupported version of Windows; 32 bit)

The Cygwin Time Machine has considerable information on a wide range of old versions and how to install them. For installations from 2010 or earlier, here are my old configuration notes.

Edit c:\cygwin\bin\startxwin.bat (or for installations prior to 12^th November 2008, c:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\startxwin.bat) and find a line similar to

run XWin -multiwindow -clipboard -silent-dup-error

Add +bs to the end of this line so that it looks like -

run XWin -multiwindow -clipboard -silent-dup-error +bs

I would also suggest enabling a scrollbar. A few lines further on in the same file, change the line similar to

run xterm -e /usr/bin/bash -l

by inserting a -sb -sl 2048 so that it looks like -

run xterm -sb -sl 2048 -geometry 80x42 -e /usr/bin/bash -l

You may find that creating a shortcut to c:\cygwin\bin\startxwin.bat (or for installations prior to 12^th November 2008, edit c:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\startxwin.bat) is a more useful way of starting Cygwin than using the default text window desktop icon. This shortcut will start the X server and open a xterm command line window.

Paper size

Edit /etc/papersize

Missing libraries?

Try cygcheck

Remote Connections

To connect to a remote UNIX server from a xterm, type

ssh -Y user@host

where user is your user name on the remote UNIX server called host. Check that graphics programs run on the remote server are displayed correctly on your desktop by typing xclock . If this does not work, exit from the remote server and try connecting again, this time replacing the -Y option with -X.