Re: Running a simple GUI app
Thanks Phil, As it turns out, a lot of my problems have been solved by doing something called a rebase (I needed to start 'ash' and then type 'rebaseall'). There's very little information about this on the internet. Can anyone explain what exactly I've done and why it's improved things so much? Regards, John - Original Message - From: Phil Betts [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: cygwin-xfree@cygwin.com Sent: 19 August 2008 09:42 Subject: RE: Running a simple GUI app John Emmas wrote on Monday, August 18, 2008 7:43 PM:: Sorry Phil if my questions seem 'lame'. I should have explained that I only installed Cygwin this morning so I'm by no means up to speed with the concepts or terminology. I'm sorry if it came across wrongly. I didn't mean to suggest you were currently lame. I had assumed from the context that you were probably new to at least some of the technology and was trying to steer you away from _becoming_ a lame Windows user. Anyway, I managed to arrange Windows so that it now starts X at boot up. This means that I can use a (DOS) console window to navigate to the appropriate directory, type 'HelloWorld' and my HelloWorld app launches with X just running silently in the background. That's a lot slicker than the procedure I was using a few hours ago. Thanks for the suggestion. What's strange though is that I can't just double-click on the app's icon and launch it. There's a (slim) chance that this could be a Windows problem but I've never known any other Windows app that can be started from a command line but can't be started by clicking its icon. Any ideas? As cgf has suggested, it's probably the DISPLAY environment variable. Alternatively, you could use the standard X parameter -display :0 if your program supports it. Phil -- This email has been scanned by Ascribe PLC using Microsoft Antigen for Exchange. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/ -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Running a simple GUI app
John Emmas wrote: Thanks Phil, As it turns out, a lot of my problems have been solved by doing something called a rebase (I needed to start 'ash' and then type 'rebaseall'). There's very little information about this on the internet. Can anyone explain what exactly I've done and why it's improved things so much? Did you read '/usr/share/doc/Cygwin/rebase-2.4.3.README'? -- Larry Hall http://www.rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office 216 Dalton Rd. (508) 429-6305 - FAX Holliston, MA 01746 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
RE: Running a simple GUI app
John Emmas wrote on Monday, August 18, 2008 7:43 PM:: Sorry Phil if my questions seem 'lame'. I should have explained that I only installed Cygwin this morning so I'm by no means up to speed with the concepts or terminology. I'm sorry if it came across wrongly. I didn't mean to suggest you were currently lame. I had assumed from the context that you were probably new to at least some of the technology and was trying to steer you away from _becoming_ a lame Windows user. Anyway, I managed to arrange Windows so that it now starts X at boot up. This means that I can use a (DOS) console window to navigate to the appropriate directory, type 'HelloWorld' and my HelloWorld app launches with X just running silently in the background. That's a lot slicker than the procedure I was using a few hours ago. Thanks for the suggestion. What's strange though is that I can't just double-click on the app's icon and launch it. There's a (slim) chance that this could be a Windows problem but I've never known any other Windows app that can be started from a command line but can't be started by clicking its icon. Any ideas? As cgf has suggested, it's probably the DISPLAY environment variable. Alternatively, you could use the standard X parameter -display :0 if your program supports it. Phil -- This email has been scanned by Ascribe PLC using Microsoft Antigen for Exchange. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
RE: Running a simple GUI app
John Emmas wrote on Monday, August 18, 2008 4:55 PM:: Hi there, After installing Cygwin (under WinXP) I've got to the stage of compiling a very simple Hello World app which just displays an empty GTK dialog with the title Hello World. To run the app I (currently) have to start Cygwin (using its desktop icon), type startx into the DOS terminal (which opens a second terminal window), navigate to the folder containing my executable and finally type ./HelloWorld. Obviously this is all a bit convoluted. Is there a simpler way to launch my app - for example:- a) Double clicking on an icon, or b) Issuing some command (from a DOS terminal) that would launch the app - but starting Cygwin and X invisibly. Thanks, John First, there's no such concept as starting Cygwin. Cygwin is just a DLL. If you mean start a bash session, there's no need to do that just to run an X program. You could* write a bash script along the lines of: /path/to/runyourprog --- #!/bin/bash --login checkx || startx exec yourprogname - The --login should ensure that the environment is set up correctly. Then you can create a shortcut with a target of: C:\cygwin\bin\bash -c /path/to/runyourprog * This is very much a lame Windows-user type of thing to be doing. Xwin is a SERVER. It should not be started by running a client. If you were to ask a linux mailing list for a way to switch runlevel if someone tried to run your program without an X server, you would rightly expect the electronic equivalent of howls of derision. Why do you not just start X when you log on? If you'd rather not start X every time you log on, you only need to start it the first time you try to run an X program. Any properly written X program (including yours) should tell the user if it cannot connect to the X server, so if you get this message, you just need to run the server - once, then try again. Phil -- This email has been scanned by Ascribe PLC using Microsoft Antigen for Exchange. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Running a simple GUI app
Sorry Phil if my questions seem 'lame'. I should have explained that I only installed Cygwin this morning so I'm by no means up to speed with the concepts or terminology. Anyway, I managed to arrange Windows so that it now starts X at boot up. This means that I can use a (DOS) console window to navigate to the appropriate directory, type 'HelloWorld' and my HelloWorld app launches with X just running silently in the background. That's a lot slicker than the procedure I was using a few hours ago. Thanks for the suggestion. What's strange though is that I can't just double-click on the app's icon and launch it. There's a (slim) chance that this could be a Windows problem but I've never known any other Windows app that can be started from a command line but can't be started by clicking its icon. Any ideas? John - Original Message - From: Phil Betts [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: cygwin-xfree@cygwin.com Sent: 18 August 2008 16:41 Subject: RE: Running a simple GUI app John Emmas wrote on Monday, August 18, 2008 4:55 PM:: Hi there, After installing Cygwin (under WinXP) I've got to the stage of compiling a very simple Hello World app which just displays an empty GTK dialog with the title Hello World. To run the app I (currently) have to start Cygwin (using its desktop icon), type startx into the DOS terminal (which opens a second terminal window), navigate to the folder containing my executable and finally type ./HelloWorld. Obviously this is all a bit convoluted. Is there a simpler way to launch my app - for example:- a) Double clicking on an icon, or b) Issuing some command (from a DOS terminal) that would launch the app - but starting Cygwin and X invisibly. Thanks, John First, there's no such concept as starting Cygwin. Cygwin is just a DLL. If you mean start a bash session, there's no need to do that just to run an X program. You could* write a bash script along the lines of: /path/to/runyourprog --- #!/bin/bash --login checkx || startx exec yourprogname - The --login should ensure that the environment is set up correctly. Then you can create a shortcut with a target of: C:\cygwin\bin\bash -c /path/to/runyourprog * This is very much a lame Windows-user type of thing to be doing. Xwin is a SERVER. It should not be started by running a client. If you were to ask a linux mailing list for a way to switch runlevel if someone tried to run your program without an X server, you would rightly expect the electronic equivalent of howls of derision. Why do you not just start X when you log on? If you'd rather not start X every time you log on, you only need to start it the first time you try to run an X program. Any properly written X program (including yours) should tell the user if it cannot connect to the X server, so if you get this message, you just need to run the server - once, then try again. Phil -- This email has been scanned by Ascribe PLC using Microsoft Antigen for Exchange. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/ -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
Re: Running a simple GUI app
On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 06:42:58PM -, John Emmas wrote: Sorry Phil if my questions seem 'lame'. I should have explained that I only installed Cygwin this morning so I'm by no means up to speed with the concepts or terminology. Anyway, I managed to arrange Windows so that it now starts X at boot up. This means that I can use a (DOS) console window to navigate to the appropriate directory, type 'HelloWorld' and my HelloWorld app launches with X just running silently in the background. That's a lot slicker than the procedure I was using a few hours ago. Thanks for the suggestion. What's strange though is that I can't just double-click on the app's icon and launch it. There's a (slim) chance that this could be a Windows problem but I've never known any other Windows app that can be started from a command line but can't be started by clicking its icon. Any ideas? X apps use a DISPLAY environment variable to denote which display they should attach to. It's possible that all that you need to do is add DISPLAY=:0 to your environment via the Control Panel-Systems setting. cgf -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/
