Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:19:05 +0200 From: Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> To: Paul Schmehl <pschmehl_lists_nada@tx.rr.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: challenge: end of life for 6.2 is premature with buggy 6.3 Message-ID: <48486659.6040007@quip.cz> In-Reply-To: <3E1DBCBBB1C614B1DBD0F166@utd65257.utdallas.edu> References: <9B7FE91B-9C2E-4732-866C-930AC6022A40@netconsonance.com> <200806051023.56065.jhb@freebsd.org> <CE0D857CF3C54017B29052F0@utd65257.utdallas.edu> <200806051910.20319.pieter@degoeje.nl> <3E1DBCBBB1C614B1DBD0F166@utd65257.utdallas.edu>
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Paul Schmehl wrote: > --On Thursday, June 05, 2008 19:10:19 +0200 Pieter de Goeje > <pieter@degoeje.nl> wrote: > >> >> There's a really easy way to test this. Build & install a new kernel, but >> keep the old kernel around (by default it's in /boot/kernel.old). If the >> problem is gone, do the upgrade as usual. If it's still there, you know >> upgrading won't fix it and you don't waste time; simply rename >> kernel.old to >> kernel. This even works with 7.0 provided that you leave >> COMPAT_FREEBSD6 in >> the kernel configuration file. > > > It's not quite that simple. To do that, I have to block out time to > drive 45 miles during my supposed "off" hours and do the upgrade there. > Because, if it breaks networking and I'm at home, the server will be > down for at least an hour until I can drive to the hosting company, get > access to the server and restore the old kernel. > > Again, I'm not complaining. Just sayin' that sometimes stuff ain't > quite as easy to do as folks who are surrounded by hardware and test > platforms assume it is. I fully understand your situation, but I think there is still way to try... You can use `nextboot` command. If you install new kernel in to /boot/kernel.new/ directory, just use: nextboot -k kernel.new and then reboot the server. New kernel will be used for this (and only this) cycle. So if something goes wrong and you have any possibility to reboot server again (PDU or by phone call to collocation), you will be back with old good kernel without need to travel. I did it a few times and it saved me ;) Miroslav Lachman
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