CODEWITHSUNDEEP
cygwin
user2627240
user2627240

Reputation: 355

Cygwin Installation Hangs - man-db

I am trying to Install Cygwin 64 bit on a Windows 2012R2 (64 bit). Downloading and initial setup went through but when it reached man-db (/etc/postinstall/man-db) the setup hangs and remains so forever. I waited more than 1.5 Hours but still no progress. I checked log file in /var/log/setup.log which has following contents.

Updating index cache for path `/usr/share/man/man1'. Wait...
Processing manual pages under /usr/share/man...
/usr/bin/mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/col.1.gz: whatis parse for col(1) failed
/usr/bin/mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/imv.1 is a dangling symlink
/usr/bin/mandb: iconv_open ("UTF-8//IGNORE", "utf8"): Invalid argument
/usr/bin/mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man1/mc.1.gz: whatis parse for mc(1) failed

I am not sure if I should cancel and start again. Will this setup come out of this stage with at least some error? Did anyone install 64 bit Cygwin and got this error ? Please help

Upvotes: 10

Views: 8188

Answers (4)

cxw
cxw

Reputation: 17031

Late to the party, but —

  • When mandb.exe hung, I killed its parent bash.exe via Task Manager and the installation completed.
  • I then killed mandb.exe in Task Manager, since it was still running.
  • I then opened a Cygwin shell and ran mandb -cds. -c recreates the index, -d prints messages (so you can actually tell it's doing something constructive!) and -s suppresses checking for orphaned formatted manual pages ("stray cats").

As I write this, mandb is still chugging along, three or four hours later, with plenty yet to go.

So I'll remember to file a bug report later :) , I did notice one oddity during the mandb run:

mandb: /usr/share/man/man3/jN.3 is self referencing
mandb: warning: /usr/share/man/man3/jnf.3.gz: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request

Upvotes: 1

user2627240
user2627240

Reputation: 355

After waiting for more than 3 hours, I decided to cancel the setup. Then I tried a reinstall, following the steps exactly as in the first install. I did not add or remove any packages. The already selected packages in the first attempt were recognized as installed. This time, the setup stopped at the above step (man-db) briefly and then completed the installation. No errors. So, re-installation solved my problem.

Upvotes: 2

Dominic Beesley
Dominic Beesley

Reputation: 1

I've been struggling with the same problem today until I realised that moving the main Cygwin setup window revealed a popup complaining about "can't open (null) for reading: no such file"

This happens multiple times in a (re)install

Upvotes: 0

turbofan
turbofan

Reputation: 479

Happens to me often. I was setting up 8 servers this week and it happened to 3 of them. Waited many hours and it is still would not finish. Sometimes the re-installation works, some it does not. So I have resorted to kill the mandb.exe process and that allows the installer to finish normally. So far I have found no side effects of doing so.

Upvotes: 6

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