Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 14:59:38 -0700 (PDT) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: Bob Boone <bboone@whro.org> Cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Updating EXISTING system... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971023142451.15317A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <199710231625.MAA21705@helios.whro.org>
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On Thu, 23 Oct 1997, Bob Boone wrote: > This may be a simple question to most of you, but its an unknown to me. > > The last two upgrades I've made, to 2.1.5 and then to 2.2.2, were timed > to replacing hard drives with larger units. It gave me an empty drive to > work with, and a back-up if I screwed-up. Fortunately, there were no > problems either time. > > Now I'm considering the jump to 2.2.5, but on the existing.... > running.... website machine. There's an excellent tutorial at http://www.freebsd.org/tutorials/ upgrade/upgrade.html (or something close to that) by Nik Clayton. (Upgrading from source). Basically, you get the sources with cvsup; you back up and also preserve some essential configuration files; you run make world or buildworld and installworld; you merge your old configuration files with the new ones; build a new kernel; and reboot. I've done this lots of times; the original install by ftp is 2.1, the version now running is a 2.2.5-BETA. I'm a little less conservative than Nik--I don't shut down to single user mode, because I want the machine to continue running (serving web pages, accepting logins, doing anonymous ftp, processing electronic mail--mine and that for a mailing list) while it's doing the make world and later building the new kernel. So the only time it's actually down is the time it takes it to reboot after I type /sbin/reboot. An ultimately conservative approach is to get another machine up and running with the new stuff before you shut down the old machine. Maybe getting everything running on another drive before you shut down and remove the old drive is perhaps in-between. > > (1) Will the 2.2.5 simply build "over" my existing files as CVS would ?? I don't really understand your question--the make world process rebuilds and replaces all the binaries (I think this statement is more or less true) everywhere but /usr/local and /usr/X11R6. I.e., it doesn't affect anything you've installed; it only rebuilds the system. But I think the answer is yes. > > (2) Do I have to nuke the drive and start over ?? No. And you really do want to figure out how to upgrade parts of the system at least without nuking the drive. > > (3) If its the FORMER - don't I still have to START from a "new" 2.2.5 > boot-floppy, to get the newer sysinstall and file locations ??? I guess you could use a boot floppy and the upgrade option, reinstalling the same distributions (including possible X and some ports and packages); you still have to merge /etc. Then you'd get the new /stand/sysinstall. This is an installation of binaries rather than rebuilding the system from source, so I would think it has more to do with 2 above than 1 (latter rather than former). But nuking the drive is a high price to pay just to get the most current sysinstall. I think file locations will be taken care of with the make world process, if you use it. You can copy the new sysinstall from /usr/src/release/sysinstall to /stand/sysinstall; I'm not sure this is a complete update or the /stand/sysinstall directory (assuming you don't erase the whole thing first, which I don't think you should do). I don't really understand this part. Annelise > > Inquiring minds want to know........ > > > > > > > > > Bob > > Bob Boone, Chief Engineer for Television > > WHRO-TV/FM 5200 Hampton Blvd. Norfolk, Va. 23508 > Pager: (757) 860-3303 *** Ph: (757) 889-9466 *** Fx: (757) 489-4444 > Internet: bboone@whro.org WebSite: http://www.whro.org > ===================================================================== >
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