Rebuilding, Got Questions

[Mikhail Goriachev]

beno - wrote:
> Thank you to everyone who responded. Consolidating your responses, I have revised thus:
>  
>  make.conf file:
>  PERL_VER=5.8.5
>  PERL_VERSION=5.8.5
>  PERL_ARCH=mach
>  NOPERL=yo
>  NO_PERL=yo
>  NO_PERL_WRAPPER=yo
>  CFLAGS= -O -pipe
>  NO_BLUETOOTH=  true    # I have no need of this
>  NO_SENDMAIL=   true    # I use qmail


I'd suggest avoiding extra tweaking. Just leave PERL (anyway it won't
affect you since it isn't in the base):

	PERL_VER=5.8.5
	PERL_VERSION=5.8.5

Compile bluetooth and sendmail even though you won't use them. This'll
save you extra headaches if something goes horribly wrong.


>  PROCEDURE:
>  /etc/6stable-supfile
>  cvsup -L 2 /etc/6stable-supfile


Read the handbook. Especially:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html


>  shut down all services except ssh
>  cd /usr/src
>  make -j4 buildworld // single CPU system


You should avoid -j4.


>  make buildkernel
>  make installkernel
>  mergemaster -p
>  reboot


Have a look at procedures in file:

/usr/src/Makefile

Otherwise you're actually forgetting "mergemaster" step, which is very
important.


>  
>  * Instead of jumping directly to /etc/6stable-supfile perhaps I should upgrade to 5.5 and then to 6 (and is this actually 6.1?) How do I do the interim upgrade? And do I want 5.5 or some other version? And is that even necessary?


It is possible to go 5.3 -> 6.1. Been there, done that and haven't had a
single trouble. I got plenty ideas from the following article:

http://www.mikestammer.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=bsd:updateos

However, that one requires some modifications if you're doing it
remotely (like in your case). I upgraded one 5.3 a month ago from a
completely another continent. So it's possible.


>   * How do I make sure userland and the new kernel are synchronized before rebooting?
>  * How do I make sure the new kernel is capable of booting before actually rebooting?


This is what I did (roughly out of my head):


1.- synch your source to 6.1 (or whatever)
2.- make buildworld
3.- make buildkernel
4.- make installkernel
5.- sh /etc/rc.shutdown		# kills all your services
6.- pkill sendmail
7.- pkill syslogd
8.- mergemaster -p
9.- make installworld
10- mergemaster			# this one is a lot of fun, be careful
11- make delete-old		# this one is breath-taking
12- reboot			# best suspense ever
13- make delete-old-libs


With mergemaster, make sure you read and understand everything. Don't
just merge the thing. Also, read /usr/src/UPDATING. That file is the
most important file. Don't forget the backups.


Good luck!


Cheers,
Mikhail.


-- 
Mikhail Goriachev
Webanoide

Telephone: +61 (0)3 62252501
Mobile Phone: +61 (0)4 38255158
E-Mail: mikhailg at webanoide.org
Web: http://www.webanoide.org

PGP Key ID: 0x4E148A3B
PGP Key Fingerprint: D96B 7C14 79A5 8824 B99D 9562 F50E 2F5D 4E14 8A3B