Re: "Loader needs to be updated" (azure guest context)

On Mon, Dec 30, 2024, 8:45 AM void <void@f-m.fm> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> context is
>
> freebsd amd64 vm on Azure (initially installed via azure marketplace
> several
> years ago (12-releng)), and has been upgraded as updates became available
> with freebsd-update over the years all the way up to 13.4-p1 now.
> System updates/upgrades have *always* been managed with freebsd-update.
>
> Latest upgrade from 13.3-p6 to 13.4-p1 shows "loader needs to be updated"
> in the beastie menu in the console now. This is new.
>
> # zfs --version
> zfs-2.1.14-FreeBSD_gd99134be8
> zfs-kmod-2.1.15-FreeBSD_gd99134be8
>
> (perhaps side issue - different version numbers, same -FreeBSD_gd99134be8
> ?!!)
>
> This system is *not* root-on-zfs. There is zfs, but it's data on
> a non-boot virtual disk.
>
> "zpool status" invites me to upgrade the pool. I've not done this (have
> never done it with this vm, either), and don't want to unless I'm
> absolutely certain upgrading the pool won't break everything.
>
> I note from a (similar, but different context) thread last September
>
> https://lists.freebsd.org/archives/freebsd-current/2024-September/006378.html
> that FreeBSD uses "the guest's boot loader and the host's /boot/lua files"
> but I'm clueless how this would apply in an amd64 context with Azure
> as the host.
>
> What do i have to do? Also, is the warning safe to ignore in this context?
>

In this context, it's a known false positive. It's too risky to fix in a pX
for 13.4, so will be in 13.5 since the fix is already in stable/13. It's
just cosmetic, there's no bug it exposes. And even if you hadn't actually
updated the loader, it will fail safe for loaders installed from FreeBSD 11
and newer (though not relevant to your use case). It should be in the
release notes for 13.4 as a known issue, but the process for post release
revision is murky at best.

The host vs guest issue you highlighted is a different thing and applies
only to bhyve.

Warner

>