From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 16 23:40:45 2010 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 84F78106566B for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:45 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (gate6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA8FD8FC1C for ; Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id o2GNeaOH004612 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:38 GMT (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Message-ID: <4BA016F4.5050303@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:36 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman Organization: Infracaninophile User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.8) Gecko/20100227 Thunderbird/3.0.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Alejandro Imass References: In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 1.0.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.95.3 at happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,DKIM_ADSP_ALL, SPF_FAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.0 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.0 (2010-01-18) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Recovering base system files after failed installworld - RESOLVED 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: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:40:45 -0000 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 16/03/2010 22:34:47, Alejandro Imass wrote: > Thanks Matthew for such a prompt and detailed answer and to give me > the confidence I was in the right track! I think my main mistake was > to jump from such an old version to the latest 7 release. This time > I'm going a version at a time, reading UPDATING every time, and yes, I > will make system backups ;-) Heh. No problem. You shouldn't need to upgrade to every different version in turn -- in fact, I'd have been fairly confident you could have gone direct from 6.2 to 7.3 or 8.0 in one step, if not for the gvinum problem you ran into. Are you using a custom kernel? If you're using GENERIC or something close to it, and just kldloading the modules you need for gvinum support a good thing to try out would be booting from the install media for various FreeBSD versions and testing gvinum compatibility. Try burning some of the disc1 or dvd .iso images (or the 8.0 USB key image) for various different releases, booting from them into fixit mode (or whatever it's called: there's a complete system image on those disks that can run stand-alone) and trying to get the system to recognise and mount your gvinum partitions without modifying them. If it doesn't work, then no harm done -- just pull the installation media and reboot. If it does work, then you can upgrade with a bit more confidence. Cheers, Matthew - -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate Kent, CT11 9PW -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkugFvQACgkQ8Mjk52CukIwtlQCgi5A1WTjRSnBOvaPb1A6Epd8D U8kAoJA6QTNikGTSyv4HAnLLKQN7uAXw =HStP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----