Downgrading from current

[John Nielsen]

On Sunday 29 July 2007 09:42:01 pm Ross Penner wrote:
> I recently upgraded my system from stable to current to try and take
> advantage of some of wireless features offered. Unfortunetly, things
> didn't work out as well as I'd like to and I want to downgrade.
>
> Reading online, it seems that downgrading isn't supported and it's
> probably best to just reinstall the system. This seems reasonable enough
> to me but I have a couple problems I need to address first.
>
> I have a lot of data on my /usr partition that I would rather not have to
> backup and then readd to the system. is there a way I can reinstall and
> leave parts of the file system intact? I assume that I can use the same
> partitions but I'm worried that reinstalling will clean the partitions.

Obviously take good backups before you try anything.

I recently downgraded one of my machines using sysinstall's binary "upgrade" 
feature. Goes something like this:

Download the .iso image for the relase or snapshot you'd like to downgrade to. 
(Skip if you already have a CD.)

Use mdconfig to create a device entry for your .iso image. (Skip if you 
already have a CD.)

Mount the cd image to /cdrom or /mnt. (Skip if you already have a CD.)

Run /usr/sbin/sysinstall (from your running system, don't boot from a CD).

Go to the options screen and set the Release name to match the .iso image or 
CD you're using. e.g. 6.2-RELEASE or 6.2-STABLE-200706.

Go back to the main menu and choose the "Upgrade" option.

Follow the prompts. If you're using a CD then use the CD media option. If 
you're using a .iso image use the local directory option and give it the 
directory where you mounted the image. Be sure to install the src 
distribution.

Check that the sources in /usr/src match what just got installed and then run 
mergemaster to fix up /etc.

Reboot.

These instructions come with no warranty, your mileage may vary, not 
responsible for items left in vehicle or data loss, etc etc. Good luck 
though. :)

JN