MA1690: an attempt to get the the lab set-up when not at Brunel

1. Click on Start which is in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Type

   cmd.exe
   

   in the box that is shown.

   Alternatively, Using the menus get a command prompt window. This will involve the following sequence of selections.

   Start --> All Programs --> Accessories -->  Command Prompt.
   

2. In the command window I recommend that you create a new folder, or at least change to a new folder, and this can be done by typing the commands such as the following in the command window.

   mkdir software_ma1690
   cd software_ma1690
   

3. If you have previously been using the Brunel system and have collected the files wget.exe and inst_from_web.bat which are put in the h:\mybin11 then put these in the folder just created in the last step. If you do this then you can jump to the last step by clicking here which just involves using inst_from_web.bat

4. The next task is to get wget.exe which will be used to automate the downloads. This is available at the following link CLICK HERE FOR wget.exe and you need to select to save the file. If you have the option to specify where the file is saved then select the folder you are using in the command window. If the file is automatically saved to a folder with an address such of the form

   c:\downloads
   

   or

   %USERPROFILE%\downloads
   

   then highlight the lines given below using the mouse by moving the mouse cursor to the first character of the first line, press the mouse and keep it pressed as you move to the last character of the last of the lines. With the lines highlighted then press the Ctrl key and the letter C at the same time. This saves the highlighted lines to a buffer. You then make the command prompt window the active window again and click the mouse on the top left hand corner to get a menu. From the menu select "Edit" and from the sub-menu select "Paste". This should execute the batch of lines that you highlighted.

   The lines to highlight and paste are given next.

   if exist "%userprofile%\downloads\wget.exe" copy "%userprofile%\downloads\wget.exe"
   if exist "c:\downloads\wget.exe" copy "c:\downloads\wget.exe"
   dir wget.exe
   

   If this shows wget.exe then go to the next step. If the above failed then start notepad and paste the following lines into the edit window.

   set a=createobject("msxml2.xmlhttp")
   set b=createobject("adodb.stream")
   a.open"get","http://users.ugent.be/~bpuype/cgi-bin/fetch.pl?dl=wget/wget.exe",0
   a.send
   b.open
   b.type=1
   b.write a.responsebody
   b.savetofile"wget.exe"
   

   Save the file with these lines as wg_vbs.vbs and exit notepad. Then in the cmd window type the following.

   cscript wg_vbs.vbs
   

   Does this now show wget.exe?

   If this has failed to put wget.exe in the folder then you cannot continue.

5. If the previous lines obtained wget.exe then we similarly attempt to get unzip.exe.

   Highlight the lines given below using the mouse by moving the mouse cursor to the first character of the first line, press the mouse and keep it pressed as you move to the last character of the last of the lines. With the lines highlighted then press the Ctrl key and the letter C at the same time. This saves the highlighted lines to a buffer. You then make the command prompt window the active window again and click the mouse on the top left hand corner to get a menu. From the menu select "Edit" and from the sub-menu select "Paste". This should execute the batch of lines that you highlighted.

   The lines to highlight and paste are given next.

   echo ..attempt to get unzip.exe if necessary
   if exist unzip.exe goto unzip_done
   wget.exe -N ftp://ftp.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/win32/unz600xn.exe
   unz600xn.exe
   
   :unzip_done
   dir unzip.exe
   

6. If the previous lines obtained unzip.exe then we next attempt to retrieve various files from the web and then install them. In some cases you are asked for the locations to install certain packages and I recommend that you select the folder suggested in each case.

   Highlight the lines given below using the mouse by moving the mouse cursor to the first character of the first line, press the mouse and keep it pressed as you move to the last character of the last of the lines. With the lines highlighted then press the Ctrl key and the letter C at the same time. This saves the highlighted lines to a buffer. You then make the command prompt window the active window again and click the mouse on the top left hand corner to get a menu. From the menu select "Edit" and from the sub-menu select "Paste". This should execute the batch of lines that you highlighted.

   The lines to highlight and paste are given next.

   wget.exe -N http://people.brunel.ac.uk/~icstmkw/mybin11.zip
   unzip.exe -o mybin11.zip
   
   echo ..attempt some downloads
   
   call g_gvim.bat
   call g_unixut.bat
   call g_notepad.bat
   call g_putty.bat
   call g_codeblocks.bat
   
   echo ..attempt some installs
   
   call i_gvim.bat
   call i_unixut.bat
   call i_notepad.bat
   call i_putty.bat
   call i_codeblocks.bat
   

7. Finally type the following in the command window to complete the installation.

   call inst_from_web.bat