8.0-RELEASE completed...

[Gary Kline]

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 09:33:04AM +0100, Roland Smith wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 09:57:58PM -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
> > 
> > 	Altho I am still some time from having my migration from the
> > 	1998 Kayak -> 2009 Dell done and working, will it be possible
> > 	to upgrade my 32bit 7.2-R, p4 to a 64bit 8.0? 
> 
> It is possible, but not easy. Upgrading from 7.x to 8.0 on the same
> architecture is not that hard IMHO. Upgrading from i386 to amd64 on the same
> release is doable but tricky; you need a spare root partition to install the
> amd64 binaries. Combining these two sounds like a big can of worms to me. My
> advice would be _not_ to do it.


	Yes, and for now I'll stick with simply going from v7 to
	v8--in the 32-bit release...  Lots of stuff to get-working
	PLUS the server migration from ancient to new.  ---eventually
	i'll take a _long_ breath.

> 
> It would be far easier to just install 8.0 on the new machine and migrate your
> data and configuration files. You are going to have to build your ports from
> scratch anyway, because you're switching to another architecture and another
> major release.
> 
> As far as I know, the on-disk filesystem format hasn't changed. (unless your
> old machine is still running UFS1. The default now is UFS2)

	Pretty sure I'm using the default.  UFS2.

> 
> There are a couple of differences between 7.x and 8.0;
> * The USB stack has been rewritten. I've had to change the following in
>   /etc/devfs.rules: replace "add path 'usb*' mode 0660 group usb" with "add
>   path 'usb/*' mode 0660 group usb" 

	Roland, would you please update your webpage?  No hurry, but
	by sometime early in '10.  I do rely on others' datapoints.
	But now tat I'm having to do some real work in this migration,
	it's time to learn about some things I've let slide.  
	

	{ One far, far OT question here: who can explain what dovecot
	is/does? why it even exists?  I'm familiar with MTA's, like
	sendmail; likewise with MUA's, like evo, kmail, and mutt.
	It's time to learn another level of complexity, evidently....}



> * The name of the tty devices has changed in /etc/ttys; ttydN -> ttyuN
>   (impacts /etc/ttys)


	What impact is this likely to have on my server?  The more
	ttys we've got, the better, for a term/xterm/<cmdline> like me.
	But because I've only used my Kayak as a server, I don't think
	I touched much in tty-land.  *But* I probably will.  I can't see
	just letting a heavy-duty dual-core suck up so many kilowats.
	--Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now:)



> * There have been a lot of changes in the kernel configuration. If you want a
>   custom kernel, start anew from the 8.0 GENERIC kernel so you don't miss
>   anything. 

	Could somebody who's running a 32biter send a GENERIC from
	8.0 so I can diff?


> * A lot of changes as well in /etc/src.conf (the file that defines which parts
>   of the system are built from source)
> * Network cards show up in dmesg and ifconfig, but not as devices in /dev (but
>   that could be a configuration error on my part.)
> 


	Sorry, you left me in the dust with "/etc.src.conf". I though
	the entire system was built from source.  Examples, please?


> 
> Since you're switching to another CPU, things like cache size will have a
> major inpact. WRT single versus multi cores, my impression has been that the
> individual cores in a multi-core intel CPU are somewhat slower that the core
> of a similarly clocked single-core CPU. (based on some informal testing I've
> done with povray). If your workloads are capable of running on multiple cores
> (e.g. make jobs, different programs running concurrently) there will be a
> significant speed increase.
> 
> You only _need_ amd64 if you are running out of address space on the i386
> architecture. Having said that, I've been running amd64 on my desktop since
> 5.3-RELEASE more or less because I can, and it has worked fine ever since. Be
> aware though that there are a few (most binary) ports that do not work on
> amd64. You can see that in the port Makefiles by looking for things like
> NOT_FOR_ARCHS and ONLY_FOR_ARCHS.


	For whatever I do, 32 bits has been fine.  I spend virtually
	my entire bg working in the 64bit  world, which used to be:
	supercomputer-level processing.  
> 
> HTH,

	Yup; this has been a serious help; you it will robably keep me
	from stepping in it [[ a mine-field ]] when I move to 8.0 or
	8.1 next year.

	gary


> 
> Roland
> -- 
> R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
> [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated]
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-- 
 Gary Kline  kline at thought.org  http://www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
        http://jottings.thought.org   http://transfinite.thought.org
    The 7.31a release of Jottings: http://jottings.thought.org/index.php