Installing and using Vrcon on Windows

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UPDATE: As of Version 0.9.9 there is a windows installer that will install everything that you need to run Vrcon on a Windows machine. Just download the setup.exe, run it, and then edit your config file! Thats it.

I am keeping the tutorial here for reference, but will probably take it down in the future.

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I get quite a few requests from people who would like to use Vrcon, but for whatever reason don't have or have access to a Linux or a Unix based system. Thanks to Cygwin, a Linux-like environment for Windows, Vrcon can be be installed on Windows systems!

This Howto is broken into two sections;
Installing Cygwin
Installing Vrcon

Enough of the small talk, show me how to install it!

Installing Cygwin

Before we can get to Vrcon, we must install Cygwin.

Go to www.cygwin.com and in the front page you will see the icon "Install Cygwin now". Click on this icon to download the setup program. Save the program, named setup.exe, to your desktop. (You can save anywhere you like, but this makes things easier).
Setup Double Click the setup.exe icon and you will see the Setup screen. Click Next.
Download Source Where to get the packages for install. Unless you have downloaded the packages and put them into a local directory, select "Install from Internet" Click Next
Root Installation Directory On this screen you will select your root install directory. This will be your / under Cygwin. By default it is c:\cygwin. You can also set cygwin to install for all users, or just for you. Default is all users. I recommend that you change the default text file type from Unix to DOS. This makes it easier to edit files created under cygwin with notepad.
Local Package Directory Cygwin needs a cache file to download into, this is the local package directory. This directory must not be the same as the Root installation directory. Once Cygwin is installed the local package directory is no longer needed and can be deleted. Click Next
Connection Type Most users can just use the default here; Direct Connection. Click Next
Select Mirror Select a mirror to download the Cygwin packages. I have always had good luck with planetmirror. Click Next
Select Packages This is the screen where you will select the Cygwin packages you want to install. By default the base installation has already been selected for you. The base install is enough to run Vrcon, however there are a few packages that can be installed that will make using Vrcon under Windows a bit better.
Packages for Vrcon Install these packages so you can use all of Vrcon's funcionability. rxvt - is a VT102 terminal emulator. Installing this will allow you to have a re-sizable xterm. Really helps when viewing logs with Vlog. rxvt can be found under the shells subdirectory. OpenSSH - The OpenSSH server and client programs. OpenSSh and vlog can be used together to read remote log files is real time. OpenSSh can be found under the net subdirectory. (When you select OpenSSH it will automatically include OpenSSL, a library that OpenSSH needs to function properly) Click Next
Downloading Shows your downloading and installation progress. This can take some time depending on your connection speed.
Icons If you would like a desktop or start-menu shortcuts installed, select them. Click Next
All Done! Click OK

Installing Vrcon

Once you have installed Cygwin you will need to download the pre-compiled Vrcon *binaries from Here The precompiled packages come with an installer that will put everything where it needs to be. The package names are in the form of vrcon_xxx.zip, where xxx is the release number.

Once you have downloaded the Vrcon package unzip it to your C:\cygwin\home\username directory. Replace C: with the drive you installed Cygwin on and where username is your login name.

Next you want to open a Bash shell by going to
StartMenu->Programs->Cygwin->Cygwin Bash Shell.

Next type ./cyginstall to install Vrcon. You will see 'All done' at the bottom of the screen
when it is complete. Type exit to close the Bash window.

You will notice that two shortcuts have been placed on your desktop, vrcon and vlog. They have the default icon image, but you can right click over them and go to properties to change that if you like. Double click on an icon to launch the program!

Make sure you have set up your vrcon config file! If you haven't done this yet go here to read up on the vrcon config file and here to see what a sample config file looks like.

Well that should get you up and running with Vrcon and Vlog under Windows. If you are still having troubles or want to give some feedback, be sure to send me and email
.

* If you want to compile Vrcon from source you can, however you will need to install alot more Cygwin packages to do this and is beyond the scope of this Howto.