[fptex] fpTeX installer crashes

[Kyle Roger Hofmann]

Hi,

I'm trying to install fpTeX 0.7 on my Windows ME system according to the
directions at http://www.fptex.org/fptexli2.html.  I've successfully
downloaded everything, but I'm having trouble installing.

I run TeXSetup.exe and tell it to install.  The options I choose don't
seem to matter (though I haven't tried telling it to ignore the local
copies of the packages).  It finds the packages and sucessfully installs
them.  Then it tries to configure fpTeX, and that's where I'm having
trouble.

TeXSetup sucessfully creates ls-R files.  Then, very soon after beginning
to create format files, it crashes.  Usually when it does this it freezes
Windows.  The mouse cursor still moves, but it is stuck with whatever
shape it had at the time of the crash.  Clicking and typing do nothing.
Even control-alt-delete fails.  Twice, instead of freezing, it gave me a
Blue Screen of Death and would not let me go back to the GUI.  Once it
turned the screen completely black.

After power cycling, ScanDisk always finds disk errors.

Strangely enough, the problem occurs even if I exit TeXSetup after format
file creation has started but before my computer crashes.  If I'm fast
enough, I can answer TeXSetup's quit dialog, and TeXSetup will exit.  A
moment later, the computer will freeze, and after reboot, there will again
be disk errors.

I'm willing to try experimental fixes, and I read in the mailing list
archives about a new MSI installer for the next version, which I'd be
willing to try.  I would like to try generating the format files by hand,
but I don't know how to do that.

Thanks in advance.

-- 
Kyle Hofmann <krhofman at umich.edu>