the true way to install all of hackage is:
cabal install $(all my packages)
where cabal install solves it all.
not really :) e.g. my output on a Windows Vista system with GHC 6.10.1 cabal install sdl Resolving dependencies... Downloading SDL-0.5.4... [1 of 1] Compiling Main ( C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\TMPSDL-0.5.4\SDL-0.5.4\Setup.lhs, C:\Users\Peter \AppData\Local\Temp\TMPSDL-0.5.4\SDL-0.5.4\dist\setup\Main.o ) C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\TMPSDL-0.5.4\SDL-0.5.4\Setup.lhs:2:2: Warning: In the use of `defaultUserHooks' (imported from Distribution.Simple): Deprecated: "Use simpleUserHooks or autoconfUserHooks, unless you need Cabal-1.2 compatibility in which case you must stick with defaultUserHooks" Linking C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\TMPSDL-0.5.4\SDL-0.5.4\dist\setup\setup.exe ... Warning: defaultUserHooks in Setup script is deprecated. Configuring SDL-0.5.4... setup.exe: sh: runGenProcess: does not exist (No such file or directory) cabal: Error: some packages failed to install: SDL-0.5.4 failed during the configure step. The exception was: exit: ExitFailure 1 To build this I guess I would have to install MinGW and MSYS (which is already insanely hard to unzip all the latest development stuff in the right places and configure it correctly, especially for a windows user), and then do all kinds of tricky things that are obvious for unix people but alien for dummy windows users like me :) Anyway, support for Windows users gets better each year, which is great!