Deprecated Cygwin Notes

Written when I was a Cygwin advocate, which is no longer the case

[http://www.cygwin.com/ Cygwin],which offers a free and minimally invasive installation of a Linux-like operating system, as a Windows application. There is also a version called [http://x.cygwin.com Cygwin/X] which is probably what you should grab. But I think there is no essential difference between between Cygwin and Cygwin/X, except that the setup.exe program for Cygwin/X installs all that nifty X windows stuff by default, but in Cygwin you have to need click the check box for installation of X.

As of January 2006, I have had some success with using X-forwarding with Gentry from Cygwin. Here are some links to help you with Cygwin configuration:

[http://www.bioinformatics.ubc.ca/resources/tutorials/cygwin_tutorial/ Installing Cygwin/X] apparently written by and for scientists like us...
[http://www.astro.umd.edu/~harris/cygwin/ Cygwin experience] another scientist shares his Cygwin experience with us. The tip about the <tt>.xinitrc</tt> is very useful, but see below.
[http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/using-remote-apps.html Displaying Remote Clients] A tip about -Y option for ssh. (But you might not need the -Y option.)

Your first test within Cygwin might go like this:

I start cygwin in Windows. A terminal with a black background opens.
I type: startx A window with a white background opens, a so-called "xterm". (It has an "X" icon in the upper left).
In that white xterm, I enter : ssh -Y bfiedler@gentry.metr.ou.edu
I tested X forwarding of GUIs from Gentry: idle, eog and gedit. They all work.
To logout of Gentry, I type: logout

If you are still happy with Cygwin, let's configure your xterm to have a scrollbar. Your white xterm should still be open. Presumably you are in your home Cygwin directory (type cd to be sure). Then

cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc .xinitrc

To see a listing of all your file names, including this "dot" file you just made, type ls -a in the xterm. Invoke a simple editor, for example type nedit. Then amend the last line in your .xinitrc to read:

exec xterm -sl 1000 -sb -rightbar -e /usr/bin/bash -l

Save the change, exit nedit, and type exit to quit the xterm and X. Then restart X: in your black console type startx. The xterm should now open with a scrollbar. I find the default font size to be too tiny. To make the font larger, I type "Ctrl-rightclick" with the cursor in the white part of the xterm, and then select Large.