Want to reinstall, preserving existing configuration

[David Benfell]

Hi all,

This is about my old notebook. It has 3GB of memory, which is pretty  
marginal for ZFS. Adding more memory is not an option (I wish it were,  
but ASUS solders the memory onto the board with these systems).

At the time, the only way I could find to install FreeBSD on it was  
with PC-BSD, which I think insists on using ZFS. I've since cleaned  
off most of the PC-BSD cruft and, really, there's nothing terribly  
wrong with the system. In fact, it's the success story that makes  
FreeBSD my preferred operating system.

But there are a couple problems which are inclining me to reinstall.  
First, the system is slow and I think ZFS isn't helping me. Second, I  
can't for the life of me figure out how to get through a portion of  
the make world step where the newly rebuilt base system is supposed to  
be installed in single-user mode--I've been having to boot all the way  
and do that installation on a fully live system (yes, that's worked).  
ZFS isn't helping me here either (I don't have this problem on UFS  
systems).

Because there's nothing else terribly wrong, I'd basically like to  
preserve the existing configuration. That includes ports and the build  
options. Has anyone come up with a neat procedure for doing this?

Thanks!
-- 
David Benfell <benfell at parts-unknown.org>
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