From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 24 21:36:57 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 206EA106568E for ; Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:36:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: from smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl (smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl [194.109.24.33]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A95748FC28 for ; Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:36:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from slackbox.xs4all.nl (slackbox.xs4all.nl [213.84.242.160]) by smtp-vbr13.xs4all.nl (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id n7OLasAV037100; Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:36:55 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rsmith@xs4all.nl) Received: by slackbox.xs4all.nl (Postfix, from userid 1001) id CE6DCBA7F; Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:36:54 +0200 (CEST) Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:36:54 +0200 From: Roland Smith To: PJ Message-ID: <20090824213654.GB43410@slackbox.xs4all.nl> References: <4A929241.5060406@videotron.ca> <4A92B6C4.8070309@videotron.ca> <20090824174937.GA43410@slackbox.xs4all.nl> <4A92DCF5.5000808@videotron.ca> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4A92DCF5.5000808@videotron.ca> X-GPG-Fingerprint: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 X-GPG-Key: http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/pubkey.txt X-GPG-Notice: If this message is not signed, don't assume I sent it! User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) X-Virus-Scanned: by XS4ALL Virus Scanner Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: moving a disk 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: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:36:57 -0000 --nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 02:33:25PM -0400, PJ wrote: > I'm afraid I was a bit impatient=20 Patience is a virtue. Installing stuff can take hours, and a split-second c= an suffice to screw it all up. Been there & done that. :-) > and messed up the already messed up > disk... frankly, I don't recall whatever happened to the thing in the > first place. Can I give you a tip? If you are doing something new or hairy, keep a laptop or even a paper notebook handy and make notes of what you do. Write down the commands that you use and any error messages that you get. My favorite technique is to open emacs (preferably on another machine), sta= rt a terminal/ssh session inside an emacs buffer and then do my thing. This gi= ves me a complete record of what I've done. Save these session (with some added explanations) to a file and you'll know what to do next time, or at least y= ou can explain to others what you've been doing. > anyway, I'm just practicing another minimal install... it's not as bad as= I > had thought... I'm getting it all together now. =20 There is an extremely easy way to get all ports that you need onto a new machine, provided that you have a (base) machine of (a) the same FreeBSD ma= jor version of (b) the same hardware architecture and (c) up-to-date installed ports available. On the base machine, make dump(8)s of the filesystem(s) containing /usr/loc= al, /var/db/ports and /var/db/pkg and save them to files. Transfer those dump files to an external harddisk or DVD. Using restore(8) interactively on the new machine, restore these three directories to their respective filesystems and you've got all ports up and running save for some editing of /etc/rc.co= nf. > Thanks much, I'm beginning > to understand a bit more... this boot stuff sure is complicated... Yep. PC booting is a throwback to an earlier era when 640 kB RAM was all th= ere was and 512 bytes seemed big enough for boot code, because you were writing= in machine language or assembly anyway. If you want a real hair-raising story about the time that assemblers were luxuries, google 'the story of Mel' and be amazed (or horrified). It predat= es PCs, but I think it shows the mind-set of the begin time of (personal) computing. Roland --=20 R.F.Smith http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/ [plain text _non-HTML_ PGP/GnuPG encrypted/signed email much appreciated] pgp: 1A2B 477F 9970 BA3C 2914 B7CE 1277 EFB0 C321 A725 (KeyID: C321A725) --nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAkqTB/YACgkQEnfvsMMhpyWangCghSlEaIvU2a4rf47M8dpCMxNu mPIAoJIk2nGTIF4phMOg9NkYOR/l2IJ5 =c5cc -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nVMJ2NtxeReIH9PS--