Re: I am not going to let Cygwin BSOD my Windows 2000 Server

[Charles Wilson <cwilson at ece dot gatech dot edu>]

Michael A Chase wrote:


> I'm having trouble understanding how setup.exe became the source of all
> evil in the universe.  You had one BSOD months ago which may or may not
> have been caused by setup.exe and as a result you are unwilling to try
> another version of it ever again.
> 
> A client level program like setup.exe shouldn't be able to cause a BSOD and
> it doesn't have any of the proprietary hooks into the OS that Microsoft's
> programs have, so I'm skeptical of your statement that it caused the BSOD.  
> Was it the only non-OS process active on your machine at the time?
> Considering the number of BSODs caused by MS Word, MSIE, and MSOE, does
> that mean you've stopped using them as well?


I've had a number of BSODs on my machines when I happened to be using 
cygwin setup.  HOWEVER, in EACH and EVERY case, I debugged the memory 
dump -- and guess where the problem was?

McAfee antivirus.

McAfee processes run in kernel mode, it seems, because they intercept 
every disk access.  (setup doesn't run in kernel mode, so it can't 
trigger a kernel panic == BSOD).

The solution is simple -- and when I've followed this procedure, I've 
never had a BSOD.

1) right-click on the little McAfee sheild emblem, choose Quick Enable, 
and turn OFF system scan.
2) similarly, turn OFF download scan
3) turn OFF email scan
4) turn OFF internet filter

5) run setup

6) repeat 1-4, but turn 'em back on.

Now, you may worry about turning off virus protection when running an 
install prograam -- but if you're really worried about it, you can do 
the following:

a) do steps 1-6 above, but run setup in "download only" mode
b) Use your antivirus program and scan each tarball that setup downloaded
b-optional) you could also download the .md5 files from your favorite 
cygwin mirror, and check the tarballs' signature...but since the 
tarballs are unsigned, anybody who'd spoof the tarball could also spoof 
the md5.  Signed tarballs are on the wishlist.(*)
c) repeat steps 1-6 above, but within setup, install from the local 
directory you previously d/led into.

Note: To date, there has not been a single case of infected files being 
distributed by the cygwin mirror system.  Although there have been a 
number of false alarms.

--Chuck

(*) has anybody ported GnuPG to cygwin?  Would you mind supporting it 
and adding it to the cygwin dist?


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