Running Framework2 and Framework3 for Windows on the same box

[hdm at metasploit.com (H D Moore)]

To clear up some confusion, this is how it works:

* Cygwin creates a share memory page using a magic ID value. If another 
copy of Cygwin tries to load (regardless of version), it dies with an 
error. If you run more than one Cygwin application at the same time, they 
need to use the same copy of Cygwin and the same root filesystem.

* Metasploit 2 uses a Cygwin1.dll that reads the 'Msf200' registry path to 
determine the file system location of the Cygwin root.

* Metasploit 3 uses a Cygwin1.dll that reads the 'Msf300' registry path 
determine the file system location of the Cygwin root.

Copying one version of Cygwin1 from MSF3 to MSF2 won't work since the 
filesystem path would be incorrect for MSF2 (it would actually launch 
MSF3 in most cases). 

Creating a single version of Cygwin for all Metasploit versions would 
solve this, but I ran into incompatibilities between the version of Perl 
used in 2.x and the newer Cygwin.

Using a plain old unmodified Cygwin environment would work, but then the 
installer would tromp all over an existing Cygwin installation and it 
becomes difficult to install/uninstall like a normal application.

The solution is to only run a single Cygwin instance at the same time. To 
run Metasploit 2, make sure that Metasploit 3's Cygwin is not loaded. The 
same applies to using Metasploit 3 if you have 2 loaded. Any other system 
application that uses its own copy of Cygwin will also cause problems, so 
you may need to start killing off other applications to get either 
version to work correctly.

So... Cygwin sucks. It was meant as a quick solution until we resolved the 
native Perl/Ruby compatibility issues. Perl never progressed to the point 
where the Framework could really use the native version on Windows, but 
we still have hope of moving Metasploit 3 to a native interpreter in the 
future.

-HD


On Wednesday 06 December 2006 07:45, Bob Davies wrote:
> Anyone have any issues with this?  FW3 runs fine, but FW2 cacks
> reporting a conflicting cygwin1.dll file.
> Just checking:
> a) if this is doable at all, and if it is
> b) if I'm the only one having this problem.