From owner-freebsd-current Wed Jun 30 11: 2: 0 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from resnet.uoregon.edu (resnet.uoregon.edu [128.223.144.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D700A155AB for ; Wed, 30 Jun 1999 11:01:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu) Received: from localhost (dwhite@localhost) by resnet.uoregon.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA03357; Wed, 30 Jun 1999 11:01:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu) Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 11:01:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White To: Mike Nowlin Cc: Andy Grum , freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Upgrading from ancient to current... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 30 Jun 1999, Mike Nowlin wrote: > > I am currently running FreeBSD 2.1.5, and would like to upgrade to 3.1 > > without losing the tremendous amounts of data on my drive (backups are > > unfortunately not an option). > > I have seen several posts containing advice for accomplishing this task > > by altering sysinstall options, but this seems to only apply when > > upgrading from less distant version numbers. Is it even possible to > > upgrade to current from this ancient a version? > > > > I'm not a total expert on this, but from my experience, "stepping" the > system up is pretty reliable... Most of my systems started out at 2.1.5, > and have been CVSup'd to either 3.x or 2.2.8 without any major hair loss. > I would definitely suggest upping to 2.2.8 first -- it's a much easier > transition than going directly to 3+. There's a problem I ran into with a > change in the root device definition in /etc/fstab, but the mailing lists > archives should describe the fix for this -- it's basically changing > /dev/wd0a to /dev/wd0s1a (or something like that) if I remember correctly. Yes. > Once you get it up to a recent 2.x setup, start reading the docs about > doing the 2->3 upgrade, while playing with your 2.2.8 system to make sure > everything works. > > > (backups are unfortunately not an option). > Hmmmmmmmm....... (frown) > > Question for the group: Is it possible to run a 2.2.8 kernel (temporarily) > with a 2.1.5 binary installation tree? If it is, it'll be much smoother > (and safer) upgrade for you.... No, not particularly. ps/top/friends will not work, and who knows what else. Doug White Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | www.freebsd.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message