Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 00:44:31 -0500 From: Chris Shenton <chris@shenton.org> To: Barney Wolff <barney@databus.com> Cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Recovery? recent "make world" rendered system unusable (64 bit change) Message-ID: <867k1wsyio.fsf@PECTOPAH.shenton.org> In-Reply-To: <20031118174729.GA29137@pit.databus.com> (Barney Wolff's message of "Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:47:29 -0500") References: <86islhoc35.fsf@Palimpsest.saic.hq.nasa.gov> <20031118174729.GA29137@pit.databus.com>
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Barney Wolff <barney@databus.com> writes: > Re-install/upgrade from a cd. Upgrade should leave your files alone. Thanks, Barney -- that's what I did and it saved my butt. A few folks suggested either LiveCD images or "fixit" functionality. I was kinda dead in the water and didn't think I could download a LiveCD and burn it from another system. I played with the floppy "fixit" functionality a bit but didn't see a way to preserve /etc and such. So I used a 5.1-RELEASE CD I had and used the UPGRADE option which promised to save my /etc stuff. I specified my old mount points (fortunately, I was able to read /etc/fstab from the boot "OK" prompt and make paper notes!). I then tried -- twice -- to install the "minimal" system from the CD and both times it kernel panic'd with a page fault (in process bufdaemon, last time). For grins, I again specified my mounts (only /, /var, /tmp, /usr; I didn't bother with /home and /usr/local), and told it to install via FTP. Surprisingly, this worked -- no panic. It appears to have installed a working kernel, /bin, /usr/bin, and friends and now I'm running again. I'm now doing a "make build world" and then will do a "make kernel KERNCONF=MyKernelDefinitionFileName", then finally a "make installworld" per the UPGRADING guide. I've never used the Upgrade option to FreeBSD and I've been using it heavily since 2.2.x. It's a good thing. Many thanks to everyone who replied. I promise I'll scan UPGRADING before doing a "make *world" next time!
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