Re: setup.exe -- ver 2.249.2.2 failure

[<fergus at bonhard dot uklinux dot net>]

> Can you please describe a click by click process
> for installing with the failure?
> Every test I've done works like a charm.

I was asked to do the same thing after reporting a problem with setup.exe
v.2.249.2.2. I'm afraid I bottled out, because I was just up to here with
setup.exe, repeated download failures, "can't open ..." messages,
non-accessibility of CD drives, reported installation failures and I don't
know what else.

Then (following an unintended key-press accident) it suddenly struck me
whilst trying it all for the 000th time, that the problems were possibly a
simple consequence of *me* pressing the wrong buttons!!! rather than
anything intrinsically wrong with setup. And this might turn out to be
broadly true, in which case I really don't mind exposing my shortcomings in
this forum because (a) it seems frankly not too difficult to do the wrong
thing and (b) all too easy to follow a not obviously stupid sequence of
button clicks that does, indeed, produce the horrid trio of  "Download
incomplete..." followed by "Can't open (null) ..." followed by "Installation
incomplete. Check /setup.log.full ...".

Here is an abbreviated list of things one might want to do:

1. Install Cygwin from scratch (the entire provision)
2. Install Cygwin from scratch (selected items only)
3. Keep a particular installation up to date

(This list is not exhaustive: also one might want just to download files to
burn a CD; or one might want to augment rather than just update an existing
installation; or one might want to install source files. But all these seem
to me at least to be secondary to the 3 requirements above.)

Assuming a user wanted to do any of these from the net, then at the first
option fork one would choose "Install from Internet" ... proceeding
eventually to the window that displays as "Select Packages: select the
packages you want setup to install". Here's where the fun begins, mainly
because it's not obvious (to me, anyway) which of each of (1) to (3) above
requires "Default" and which "Install". Certainly if I want to follow (3)
having started with (1) (i.e. I want to maintain a full installation as
up-to-date as possible) then "Install" is a no-no, because I end up with the
tooth-pulverising offer of setup*src* which is a sure sign of horrid
messages to follow.

Q1. So, please could somebody explain in the context of "Uninstall,
Reinstall, Install" (3 nice verbs) what "Default" actually means (what part
of speech is it?) and when to use it and when something else for (1) to (3)
above?

Q2. Notwithstanding the clarity of any responses to Q1 that this
communication may generate, it does seem to me that something is adrift with
the logic of setup.exe, and the paths it allows a user to follow. What, for
instance, is the meaning of 'Default/ Install/ Uninstall/ Reinstall', all
four of which are distinguishable and allowed choices, when at the start of
the sequence a user has chosen simply "Download from Internet"?

Thank you.

Fergus


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