From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 26 14:34:34 2011 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 2D318106566B for ; Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:34:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jherman@dichotomia.fr) Received: from mail.dichotomia.fr (hydrogen.dichotomia.net [91.121.82.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A1F4C8FC12 for ; Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:34:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.18] (unknown [178.33.164.134]) (Authenticated sender: kha@dichotomia.fr) by sslmail.dichotomia.fr (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5986F3DD070; Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:31:22 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <4E2ED0B2.7040604@dichotomia.fr> Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:35:30 +0200 From: Jerome Herman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20110624 Thunderbird/5.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Lars Eighner References: <4E2E9F24.1040108@dichotomia.fr> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.7 (sslmail.dichotomia.fr); Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:31:23 +0200 (CEST) Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Making world but no kernel X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:34:34 -0000 On 26/07/2011 15:01, Lars Eighner wrote: > On Tue, 26 Jul 2011, Jerome Herman wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> I would like to know if it is possible to rebuild world, but without >> upgrading or even compiling the kernel. >> >> The problem is such : I am presently working on a FreeBSD station >> that seems to have quite a lot of problem, notably with fsck. I am >> starting to wonder whether this BSD station was properly installed, >> or if some of the system tools were pasted from older FreeBSD setup. > > You should look into the problems you have without borrowing trouble. > >> Since the machine is in a remote location, I would prefer to avoid >> full reinstall if possible. Among other things, single user mode is >> not available. > >> >> So I was wondering, if I get the full sources with sysinstall, can I >> make buildworld and then installworld without going through the >> kernel phase or would this be a bad idea ? > > You do not have to enter single user mode to make kernel. You "should" > enter single user mode to install world. And in any event, you have > to be > able to reboot the machine. > > Actually, it is not absolutely necessary to enter single-user mode to > install world, but you have to kick all the users off, shut down the > daemons, and sync the discs. This can be difficult and error-prone. And > you have to be able to reboot the machine. If you can reboot the > machine, I > don't quite understand why you cannot enter single-user mode. > > I strongly suggest you document the problems you are having with fsck and > any other system tools to obtain an accurate diagnosis of those problems. I sure wil if the problem arises in a "sane" environment. But here, I realized that my setup was twisted, probably due to an unholy mix of FreeBSD versions. I do not want to get people to try to figure out a problem that only arise when people installing the OS where drunk. Right now I am at step one : "make sure your system looks like something we might be able to support". This box is supposed to be a 8.2, so I am trying hard to make it a real 8.2. Step two will be "make a long and clever bug report stating everything you did and what you expected in result" Step three "Find the bug, submit a patch, be the hero of the day" will be someone else... sadly. > >