From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 21 19:07:03 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 97FBB106568E for ; Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:07:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-stable-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: from mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.9]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72D7C8FC12 for ; Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:07:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 12437 invoked from network); 21 Aug 2009 18:40:22 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail7.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 21 Aug 2009 18:40:22 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 9120D5082B; Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:40:20 -0400 (EDT) To: Mikael Bak References: <4A8EAE86.2000108@t-online.hu> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:40:20 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4A8EAE86.2000108@t-online.hu> (Mikael Bak's message of "Fri\, 21 Aug 2009 16\:26\:14 +0200") Message-ID: <44bpm9t3hn.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrade FreeBSD 7.1 to 7.2 X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:07:03 -0000 Mikael Bak writes: > I would like to do a binary upgrade from 7.1 to 7.2. I've seen the > instructions here: > http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.2R/announce.html > > I've heard that it's safest to start the machine in single user mode > when doing upgrades, but I see no notice about it in the announcement. The announcement explicitly points to the FreeBSD Handbook for the procedure for doing source upgrades, which does indeed including booting the new kernel into single-user mode before doing the installworld. > So my question is: Is it ok to do this binary upgrade without start > single user mode first? Sure. It's riskier; if the new kernel doesn't boot, but you already have the new userland installed, you're stuck. You'll need to recover from some other bootable media, which may well take quite a while. Just how risky it is depends on how big a version jump you're making. > If no, must I reboot my machine to enter single user mode? Rebooting is at least as important as getting into single-user mode. You want to know your kernel is good. Single-user mode is good, too, because you don't want to change utilities out from under running processes if you can help it. All of that said, though, I do it all the time on lightly loaded machines. I always reboot after completing the upgrade, and usually also in between the installkernel and installworld. Trying the upgrade on a test machine first helps reduce the risk as well. Unfortunately, machines that you want to avoid downtime on are usually the same ones that you really can't afford to fail an upgrade...