Unable to install Java JDK on Windows via cygwin/ssh

Question

For testing purposes, I am automating creation of configured EC2 machines. The creation/configuration is done via ssh connection (same logic for various OSs). On windows (Windows 2003 Server), there is cygwin with ssh pre-configured, so that I can ssh there.

As part of the configuration, I need to install given version of Java SDK. I upload the exe installer (jdk-6u34-windows-i586.exe) to the machine and run it with the /s parameter (silent install). When I run this from windows console (in remote desktop) or even via cygwin in remote desktop, it works perfectly. But when I ssh to there and run it in cygwin via ssh, if fails.

The fail seems to be quite strange, since the installer partially extracts it's content into c:\\Documents and Settings\\Administrator\\Application Data\\Sun\\Java\\jdk1.6.0_34 and then it fails with exit code 67 . The number of files extracted before exit varies.

When doing this programatically using Java and Jsch , the command also prints error message initgroups: Permission denied to the error stream. I don't see this message when I connect manually via ssh, so I am not sure, if it's related (when googling, I found this error occuring in completely different context, which did not help me).

I would welcome any explanations, why this happens (and how to fix/work around it). Other hints how to reliably automatically install given JDK on EC2 windows machine are welcomed as well. Thanks.

Answer 1

It turned out, that there is some intentional architectural separation in Windows (from some version), that services can not access UI.

As the cygwin ssh-daemon was running as a service, it could not make UI calls or start UI-based programs. The JDK installer was UI-based (it seemed to do something UI-ish even in silent mode), which got forbidden.

When running the same from Remote Desktop session, it all worked fine, since there the UI was accessible.