Problems building Mysql55-server port (no suitable checksum found)

[Olaf Greve]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your excellent reply!

>You got it with the last one. Your system is too outdated to run a
>current ports tree. FeeBSD 5.4 was EOL'd in 2006, and 5.5 in 2008.
>You'll should probably update to a supported version of FreeBSD
>(meaning *at least* 7.3). Alternatively, try checking out a five-year
>old copy of the ports tree and building with that - but that's *still*
>unsupported software.

Aye, I hear you! No, I'm not going to 'patch it in place' using an old ports tree. There's nothing of vital importance on the machine, so I can either go two ways:
1) Upgrade the system.
2) Do a clean install.

Nr. 2 is of course a (for me) proven route to success, but how about upgrading everything: is that easier to do? I presently have a custom kernel on that machine which was back then necessary for supporting the DVD burner and (IIRC) the Adaptec 2200s SCSI RAID controller. When doing a clean install I'll probably have to take the machine out of the server rack and do all this stuff from home; incl. some nasty sendmail daemon splitting etc. 
If a good update mechanism exists that leaves my Sendmail, SVN, Trac, and some other installations in place, that could be preferrable...
Do you know if there are any good guides for this, or is this perhaps a route that I'd better not take?

Thanks again and cheers!
Olafo