getting ports updated on an older FreeBSD (5.1)

[Thomas Mueller]

On 2015-06-24 03:10, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> I was thinking about the possibility of building/upgrading the base
> FreeBSD from source by steps, such as 5.1 -> final 6-stable -> final
> 8-stable -> 10.1 or possibly FreeBSD-current.

Mel Pilgrim responded:

> The introduction of KSE happened in 5.x and IIRC a related ABI break starting
> with 5.4 means the only upgrade path from prior versions is a full reinstall
> because you can't cross-run kernel and userland.

I guess then, upgrading FreeBSD from source would require building and installing on a new partition, in this case a new, bigger, hard drive.

There would be the logistic matter of how and where to switch from MBR to GPT.

I don't recognize the acronym KSE, didn't know about that particular ABI break in 5.4.

Back then, with FreeBSD <= 5.x, or maybe it was <= 4.x, the boot floppy always hung probing for devices, was never able to boot.

I believe my first installation of FreeBSD was 7.x, probably 7.0.  I could run Linux (Slackware), but FreeBSD could only run in safe mode, possibly because of a bug in the hard drive hardware.  That hard drive subsequently went all the way bad.

Tom