From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 16 20:54:58 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1B75616A415 for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 20:54:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bob@tania.servebbs.org) Received: from mail1.panix.com (mail1.panix.com [166.84.1.72]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EC1D43D5A for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 20:54:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bob@tania.servebbs.org) Received: from mailspool3.panix.com (mailspool3.panix.com [166.84.1.78]) by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BCACA58A9D for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:54:56 -0400 (EDT) Received: from tania.servebbs.org (pool-71-247-66-166.nycmny.east.verizon.net [71.247.66.166]) by mailspool3.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34BB5B66943 for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:54:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Bob Organization: TamaraB To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:54:18 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 References: <200609161541.38002.bob@tania.servebbs.org> <450C55FA.5070701@verysmall.org> In-Reply-To: <450C55FA.5070701@verysmall.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200609161654.18636.bob@tania.servebbs.org> Subject: Re: When is BuildWorld necessary? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 20:54:58 -0000 On Saturday 16 September 2006 15:52, pobox@verysmall.org wrote: > > But I have one question - do you rebuild the world on a remote machine > (without physical access) and if yes - how do you restart in single user > mode. This is what I can't understand so far. I remembered something right after I sent the last post. I have done this before, years ago. Not with bsd, but with Linux. I was working on a small server farm, and cross-connected serial ports from one server to another. Made the serial port the console, and then I could telnet to the adjacent server, tip to the other one, and have the system console. From there you could pretty safely do whatever you wanted to do, if the kernel were to fail to boot, you would be left at the loader prompt, where you could boot the box into a known good kernel. I can't see why you couldn't do something like that with FreeBsd. All you need is a serial port you can control remotely, like an adjacent server, or a router.... set it all up beforehand, and you should be good to go. Bob