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Re: Setup and recovering from mistakes.
Max, CB,
At 07:15 2002-10-17, Max Bowsher wrote:
CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Max Bowsher wrote:
>>
>> I'm going to describe exactly how setup behaves for me. Explain
>> carefully how it differs for you.
>>
>> Setup Splash Page [Next]
>> Choose a Download Source [Install from Local Directory, Next]
>> Select Root Install Directory [Next]
>> Select Local Package Directory [Next]
>> Progess [wait]
>> Select Packages [Make necessary choices in the package chooser
>> thingy, Next] Stuff gets installed.
>
> This is very helpful. It is quite possible that I am too
> impatient. How long is the "Progress [wait]" step under what
> conditions including CPU speed (mine is very slow, a 486/80)?
Less than 1 sec on my P4 1.2GHz. I think you should hear disc access during
this phase. (I can't tell - 1GB of RAM allows a lot of disc cache :-) )
You have got to be kidding! You must have very few packages installed. I
have a full mirror of all binary and source packages and keep all the
binary packages installed. Preparation for "Install from Local Directory"
takes 2:15 (min:sec) on my system. This system is, by the standards of the
moment, one of the fastest systems one can buy (the only real exception in
this case being the mere Ultra-Wide SCSI disk and channel on which my local
Cygwin package mirror resides--the other disks, including the Cygwin are
Ultra-160; Well, that and the fact that I keep the mirror package files on
an NTFS compressed volume). After Setup.exe is done scanning the package
repository and the active installation to tell me what's available for
installation (update), it has consume about 6 seconds of CPU time (on a 2.4
GHz P4) and has read 748 million bytes. The local package mirror /
repository occupies 489 megabytes.
Hmmm... Now that I think of it, it could only be counter-productive to use
file system compression on all those BZip2-compressed files (as well as on
the older gzip-compressed ones). I'll exclude that portion of the volume
from compression in the future. OK. After removing the system-level
compression from the archive and immediately re-running Setup.exe in
"Install from Local Directory" the scanning time decreases from 2:15 to
1:50. Not bad.
Anyway, the point is that considerable patience can be required for this
phase of Setup.exe's operation. I suppose some sort of progress meter might
forestall the incorrect conclusion among some users that the program has
hung or is looping infinitely, possibly trashing their disk in the
process... (Did I phrase that sufficiently neutrally to avoid being asked
to submit a patch?)
> I considered that that should be virtually instantaneous, and I gave
> the process the 3 fingered salute after a relatively short time.
> As I said, I have about 90 odd megabytes of bz2 files downloaded
> as candidates to process, much of which I want to ignore for now.
Patience is a virtue...
> If the system has to expand all those bz2 files and extract the
> tar directories, that would explain the delay.
It doesn't extract them. I think it just walks the tree checking presence
and sizes (and, in as-yet-unreleased setup versions, the md5sum).
> Can you confirm that all I need to do to shift those elsewhere (a
> different disk) is to bodily move the whole "download source"
> directory (and subdirs etc) there?
You should move the entire local package directory (the one you specified in
setup.exe) and all subdirs. The setup.ini file in particular is vital if you
want to do an install with no net access.
Max.
Randall Schulz
Mountain View, CA USA
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