Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2003 16:00:07 -0500 From: Bill Vermillion <bv@wjv.com> To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Production Machine, Custom Kernel, Updating to P9 Message-ID: <20030322210007.GA87466@wjv.com> In-Reply-To: <009701c2f0b1$b9914c20$a977ca41@vsis169> References: <009701c2f0b1$b9914c20$a977ca41@vsis169>
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While humming that old rock song Yackety Yacc - Dont Awk Back Lewis Watson sang or SED something like this: > First, please direct me to a more suitable list if this is > too OT. I am running a few FreeBSD machines in a small isp > environment. I want to upgrade from release 4.7-p7 to release > 4.7-p9 on a machine with a customized kernel that is *in > production* and am hoping that those of you more experienced > with FreeBSD can give me some advise to keep this machine > solid. > In my limited past I have went the route of install OS from cd; > cvsup with RELENG_4_7 all the way to make installworld and then > once the OS was updated I would customize my kernel. So now I > want to update to 4.7-p9 and I have a customized kernel and am > not sure what is the best way to proceed. > I have read /usr/src/UPDATING and the handbook regarding > rebuilding the kernel after syncing the src. It looks as if I > have two paths. 1) Rebuild with my custom kernel or 2) rebuild > with a generic kernel and then rebuild a custom kernel later. > I would prefer to go with my custom kernel but am afraid that > something may break; which in turns makes me want to go with > GENERIC... but then..... I start with a GENERIC and modify a copy for my own kernel name. Then I copy the GENERIC to a name such as GENERIC-2003-03-01 - the time of the last GENERIC. Then when a cvs updates the GENERIC I run a diff on the new GENERIC and my saved GENERIC to see if there are any differences that might affect my system, and add only what I'd need. I also do the same with LINT. I also backup that directory to another file system that wont get changed. This way you can always use your own custom kernel after noting which changes have been made. > I have googled this in various ways and found an article where > make buildkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC would stop with an error in > his case. So before I hose my system I am hoping that the more > experienced list members in the isp environment who understand > my situation could share their past experiences... If either you old config or the new GENERIC fails, then recvsup as something is wrong. I've had strange errors that a new cvsup has cured about three or four times total - and that's over three + years. I've not had a problem doing this step by step, and then installing the kernel and rebooting. I have yet to have to drive to the colo to fix a non-booting machine - but I do this about 2AM and the facility is close by. I'm just getting serial IP devices installed so that I can recover from a system that won't come up running in multi-user mode. Bill -- Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message
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