Wise Install for Cygwin/X and Windows OCX for automatic X connection.

Boaz Harrosh boaz@hishome.net
Mon Jul 26 16:21:00 GMT 2004


Hi list!
I have packaged a "wise" installation for Just Cygwin-X + ssh. Is it in 
any way interesting to any one? (Wise is a package that produces a 
self-installing executables.)

I have had to change a few .BAT files so hard coded \Cygwin where 
removed and a call to /cygenv.bat is made. The Wise installer will than 
write/modify this file to reflect installation path. It is now possible 
to install to any directory, the default is: "\Program files\Cygwin". 
Batch files and Registry entries use the short DOS name of above folder 
so there are no spaces in the directory name.

TODO: compile Cygwin to use a different Registry root-key, so above can 
be installed along side an existing Cygwin installation.
The package is 44Meg 20Meg of it is the X fonts. It is 27Meg after 
packaging for download.

I have also developed a self-installing OCX (Xwidget.OCX) that can be 
put on a WEB page, that will install above X and than will connect to an 
SSH server and will execute a command. So a windows base browser machine 
can run remote X applications. Follow is a list of actions preformed by 
Xwidget:
- IE hits a page with above OBJECT instance. The OBJECT tag has the 
CODEBASE attribute pointing to the Xwidget.CAB file (file contains the 
Xwidget.OCX + above cygwinX installation + setup.inf file that installs 
them both.)
- If Object does not exist it is installed by IE after confirmation.
- OCX has 4 main properties:
    - "ServerIP" is a string that can be a URL or an IP address which 
points to an SSH server.
    - "SSHUser" is the remote user to use.

    -"MagicWord" is the password or ssh-key to be used
    - "SSHCommand" is a string that contains the shell script to execute 
on the server after connection.
- After above are set the "Connect" property is called by HTML script 
Xwidget will do the following:
- Check to see if X is running locally. If not it will be lunched.
- establishes an SSH connection with "ServerIP" and "SSHUser". Using the 
-X switch for X Forwarding. (Hard coded local display 0.0 is used)
- Executes the "SSHCommand" on the remote machine. So if an X-Client 
application is specified in this command it will display on the user 
machine tunneled threw the established SSH connection.

So a Linux/Unix application server can put up an HTTP server with a Menu 
full of Applications it can serve. A first time visitor will have X 
automatically installed, each link on the page will/can lunch a 
different application.

Would Cygwin/X like to Host this OCX? Or should I send it to Freashmeat?



More information about the Cygwin-xfree mailing list