From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 30 14:49:32 2007 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 BB55E16A418 for ; Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:49:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) Received: from ns1.jnielsen.net (ns1.jnielsen.net [69.55.238.237]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 892F813C428 for ; Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:49:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) Received: from localhost (jn@ns1 [69.55.238.237]) (authenticated bits=0) by ns1.jnielsen.net (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id l6UEnU2r062088; Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:49:31 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from lists@jnielsen.net) From: John Nielsen To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:48:58 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: In-Reply-To: X-Face: #X5#Y*q>F:]zT!DegL3z5Xo'^MN[$8k\[4^3rN~wm=s=Uw(sW}R?3b^*f1Wu*.<=?utf-8?q?of=5F4NrS=0A=09P*M/9CpxDo!D6?=)IY1w<9B1jB; tBQf[RU-R<,I)e"$q7N7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200707301048.59092.lists@jnielsen.net> X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 0.88.4, clamav-milter version 0.88.4 on ns1.jnielsen.net X-Virus-Status: Clean Cc: Ross Penner Subject: Re: Downgrading from current 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, 30 Jul 2007 14:49:32 -0000 On Sunday 29 July 2007 09:42:01 pm Ross Penner wrote: > I recently upgraded my system from stable to current to try and take > advantage of some of wireless features offered. Unfortunetly, things > didn't work out as well as I'd like to and I want to downgrade. > > Reading online, it seems that downgrading isn't supported and it's > probably best to just reinstall the system. This seems reasonable enough > to me but I have a couple problems I need to address first. > > I have a lot of data on my /usr partition that I would rather not have to > backup and then readd to the system. is there a way I can reinstall and > leave parts of the file system intact? I assume that I can use the same > partitions but I'm worried that reinstalling will clean the partitions. Obviously take good backups before you try anything. I recently downgraded one of my machines using sysinstall's binary "upgrade" feature. Goes something like this: Download the .iso image for the relase or snapshot you'd like to downgrade to. (Skip if you already have a CD.) Use mdconfig to create a device entry for your .iso image. (Skip if you already have a CD.) Mount the cd image to /cdrom or /mnt. (Skip if you already have a CD.) Run /usr/sbin/sysinstall (from your running system, don't boot from a CD). Go to the options screen and set the Release name to match the .iso image or CD you're using. e.g. 6.2-RELEASE or 6.2-STABLE-200706. Go back to the main menu and choose the "Upgrade" option. Follow the prompts. If you're using a CD then use the CD media option. If you're using a .iso image use the local directory option and give it the directory where you mounted the image. Be sure to install the src distribution. Check that the sources in /usr/src match what just got installed and then run mergemaster to fix up /etc. Reboot. These instructions come with no warranty, your mileage may vary, not responsible for items left in vehicle or data loss, etc etc. Good luck though. :) JN