From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 17 20:25:22 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 A4681106567C for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:25:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from aimass@yabarana.com) Received: from mail-pv0-f182.google.com (mail-pv0-f182.google.com [74.125.83.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 877138FC21 for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:25:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: by pva18 with SMTP id 18so854675pva.13 for ; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:25:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: aimass@yabarana.com Received: by 10.114.248.7 with SMTP id v7mr940790wah.36.1268857521838; Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:25:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <3f1c29e71003170656u1b932fd2v37f5062440653e3b@mail.gmail.com> References: <3f1c29e71003170656u1b932fd2v37f5062440653e3b@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:25:21 -0400 X-Google-Sender-Auth: f47307d1f3514041 Message-ID: From: Alejandro Imass To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Re: Which version of FreeBSD is it? 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: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:25:22 -0000 On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 9:56 AM, =D0=90=D0=BD=D1=82=D0=BE=D0=BD =D0=9A=D0= =BB=D0=B5=D1=81=D1=81 wrote: > I have the server that's running FreeBSD for the last few years, but I sa= w > it only year ago and know nothing about when and how was installed FreeBS= D > on it. > > # uname -a > FreeBSD myhost.net 6.2-RC1 FreeBSD 6.2-RC1 #4: Fri Mar =C2=A05 01:37:03 M= SK > 2010 =C2=A0 =C2=A0 root@myhost.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/MYKERN =C2=A0amd6= 4 > > Is it RELEASE, STABLE or what? I read most of the answers to this thread and after attempting the very similar upgrade (6.2-STABLE to 7.3) I can tell you that it can fail. In fact it did, and several times. In my case there were several problems I was overlooking, for example I have an IDE drive and 4 satas in a RAID5 config with gvinum. I had completely forgotten I had moved /usr to the gvinum dirve, so every time I would boot I was seeing the wrong binaries and libs, and the upgrade process was not easy. After really screwing up the whole system, I finally resorted to downloading the iso for v8 cd1 and live. With the help of FixIt the holographical shell and the live, I was able to recover the complete system and actually finishing the last steps as I'm writing this. I mean, I was able to fully recover the system without reformatting and installing from scratch. This process taught me several things: 1) upgrade has to be thought out pretty well, examine everything and plan for contingency. If you have disk arrays they may and should not mount until the end of the upgrade process IMHO. 2) The upgrade process is not hard at all, once you understand how it works. You will usually need lots of experience with Unix and hacking in general. 3) Most importantly, FreeBSD is simply _very hard_ to destroy. I really, really screwed up my system, and was able to recover it by using the handbook, google, the install CD and the Live. Now that I can truly appreciate the separation of system base from everything else, I can tell you with a lot of certainty that it's really hard not to be able to recover from a failed upgrade. Having said all this, make sure that you backup most of what you will miss, or if you can, backup everything. The upgrade process is not usually harder than what is stated here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgradin= g.html Also, if your setup is simple enough, you may be able to do it with the sysinstall utility of CD1, nevertheless, I don t advise it unless you know what your doing! Also, in my case I had a _need_ for upgrading, if you don't have a specific need, just leave it alone. The majority of newer ports will still work with 6.2. and I don't really think any security things will affect you if they haven't already! Best, Alejandro Imass > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.o= rg" >