[tex-live] tl2009: i386-cygwin: binaries won't work due to dll problem

[Ken Brown]

On 8/11/2009 5:54 PM, Markus Ueberall wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I installed both i386-linux and i386-cygwin (by means of the Linux
> version of tlmgr) on a dual-boot machine. (In order to access texlive
> from both operating systems, the ext3 partition with tl2009 is mounted
> using ext2fsd.)
> 
> After the installation of the i386-cygwin arch, I rebooted into Windows.
> However, all binaries trigger the following error message (dialog box):
> 
> 'Der Prozedureinsprungspunkt "__assert_func" wurde in der DLL
> "cygwin1.dll" nicht gefunden'
> ('The procedure entry point "__assert_func" could not be located in the
> dynamic link library "cygwin1.dll"')
> 
> I'm quite sure that the Cygwin installation on my ThinkPad is up-to-date
> and the environment is sane; the output of "cygcheck -c" can be seen
> here: http://pastebin.org/8307 (cygwin1.dll v1.5.25, 12-Jun-2008)
> (There are no 'stray' Cygwin DLLs in the path and the problem persists
> even if all binaries are copied into a NTFS partition.)
> 
> Guess #1: Could it be that the binaries are built using Cygwin release
> 1.7 beta?
> Guess #2: Do the 'usual' setup steps using tlmgr differ between Linux
> and Windows?

Guess #1 is correct.  The install-tl script warns that this is the case 
when it is run under cygwin.  The updated documentation for TL2009 will 
probably give a similar warning.  But installing the binaries while 
running tlmgr under a different system does not produce any warning.

I'm the person who built the cygwin binaries and made the decision that 
TL2009 should only support cygwin-1.7.  I had a variety of reasons, 
which we could discuss elsewhere if you want.  Angelo Graziosi has built 
cygwin binaries under 1.5, and I'm sure he would make them available to 
you if you don't want to upgrade your cygwin installation.  (But cygwin 
1.7 is actually very stable in spite of being labeled as "beta", and it 
offers many improvements over 1.5.  Moreover, it is expected to go live 
very soon.)

Ken