Migration from 5.5 to 6.2 without single user access

[Abdullah Ibn Hamad Al-Marri]

On 7/4/07, Jonathan Horne <freebsd at dfwlp.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday 03 July 2007 21:10:22 Olivier Nicole wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am upgrading a remote server (very remote, 10,000 km) and I have no
> > way to access the machine in single user mode.
> >
> > Is there a recommended way to do the upgrade from 5.5 to 6.2?
> >
> > Do everything in multi-user, but kill all services but sshd?
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Olivier
>
> your mileage may vary...
>
> but i do it without killing any services (but i also know that i am the only
> one logged into the machine).  when you install world, *for the most part*,
> you are not tampering with things like apache, etc.
>
> as always, good backups of your data and configurations are a must before
> performing any such dangerous process as a multiuser-mode installworld.
>
> when going from 5.x to 6.x, most people recommend first upgrading to the
> lastest possible 5.x release first, and then moving on to 6.x (so in your
> case, either 5.5-STABLE or 5.5-RELEASE-p13.
>
> good luck,
> --
> Jonathan Horne
> http://dfwlpiki.dfwlp.org
> freebsd at dfwlp.com

Here how I did it for many remote servers I own and help friends to run.

First install screen from the ports to make your life easier.

After csup to the branch you desire to upgrade to, like RELENG_6_2 or
RELENG_6 to get the latest changes in 6.x branch do these stuff.

#rm -r /usr/obj/*
#cd /usr/src
#make cleanworld
#mergemaster -p
#make buildworld
#make buildkernel
#make installkernel
#reboot
#cd /usr/src
#make installworld
#mergemaster -iU (-iU added to automatically install files that don't
exist and upgrade those that haven't changed.
#reboot


-- 
Regards,

-Abdullah Ibn Hamad Al-Marri
Arab Portal
http://www.WeArab.Net/