Re: How to upgrade an EOL FreeBSD release or how to make it working again

What is NetBSD for ?

On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 9:53 PM paul beard <paulbeard@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is usually where someone asks if OP has heard of NetBSD.
>
> https://www.netbsd.org
>
> On Mon, Jan 15, 2024 at 10:16 AM David Chisnall <theraven@freebsd.org>
> wrote:
>
>> On 15 Jan 2024, at 16:46, Mario Marietto <marietto2008@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > The ARM Chromebook is based on armv7,it is still recent.
>>
>> For reference, the ARMv7 architecture was introduced in 2005.  The last
>> cores that implemented the architecture were released in 2014.  This is not
>> a ‘recent’ architecture, it’s one that’s 19 years old and has been largely
>> dead for several years.
>>
>> > But let's change perspective for a moment,don't think about the ARM
>> Chromebook. My question is : how to upgrade FreeBSD when it goes EOL.
>>
>> Generally, run `freebsd-update`.  This is a very different question from
>> ‘how do I do a new install of an old an unsupported version?'
>>
>> > I ask this because there is a huge difference here between FreeBSD and
>> Linux. Today if you need to use , for example Ubuntu 14.0, you can use it
>> as is. Yes,there will be a lot of bugs,but it will work without crashes.
>> But if you want to use an old FreeBSD system,nothing will work for you.
>> So,do you know some methods to install even packages or ports ? You
>> know,there are cases when you need to do some experiments so that you can
>> keep your machine off the internet,so you aren't scared that someone can
>> compromise it. Totally prohibiting the users to use an old system,removing
>> ports and packages is not a choice that I approve of. And I'm not the only
>> one that thinks like this.
>>
>> If you want to use an old and unsupported version of FreeBSD, no one is
>> stopping you, but:
>>
>>  - You will need to build the releases.  The source code is still in git,
>> you can.  The scripts for building the release images are right there in
>> the repo.  Just grab the relevant release or releng branch and go.
>>
>>  - You will need to build packages.  Newer versions of the ports tree
>> will not be tested with the older release, so you may need to use an older
>> checkout of the ports tree.  Poudriere will build a package repo for you.
>>
>> In both cases, if you’re using older versions you almost certainly *will*
>> have security vulnerabilities.  The project strongly advises you not to do
>> this and not to blame us when you install known-insecure software and end
>> up compromised.
>>
>> The project does not have enough active contributors to keep maintaining
>> things indefinitely.  This is why release have a five-year supported
>> lifetime.  If you want to pick up an old branch and maintain it, you’re
>> welcome to.  In the past, companies have picked up old branches and
>> maintained them for customers that had a dependency on them.  If you want
>> to pay someone to maintain an old branch (and have deep pockets) then there
>> are probably a few companies that will happily take your money.
>>
>> Maintaining binaries is a slightly different issue, but it’s not totally
>> unrelated.  Keeping old packages around consumes disk space and costs the
>> project money (remember, every package is mirrored across the CDN, so this
>> isn’t just a single disk).  Even if it were free, philosophically, I think
>> making it easy for users to install known-insecure software is a bad idea
>> but if you want to keep a package repo with out-of-date packages online
>> indefinitely then you can.  You can run Poudriere and even cross-compile
>> from a fairly beefy cloud machine quite easily.
>>
>> It’s been a while since I did a full package build, but I would guess
>> that you could do a single package build (all ports) for about $50 on a
>> cloud VM, more (2-3x) if it’s emulated.  Storing the results for a small
>> number of users will cost around $10-20/month.  If you think this is an
>> important thing to do, then you are absolutely welcome to spend your own
>> money on doing it.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Paul Beard / www.paulbeard.org/
>


-- 
Mario.