Date: Thu, 24 Jul 1997 16:08:45 +0900 From: Robert Inder <inder@etliss.etl.go.jp> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Documentation for install omits important information Message-ID: <199707240708.QAA00476@etliss.etl.go.jp>
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I am currently running 2.0.5. ((Yeah, it is old. But it goes just
fine...))
The advent of a new S3VIRGE graphics card is provoking me to upgrade
my X server, which in turn has led me to want to upgrade to 2.2.2.
The installation documents for 2.2.2 talk about "upgrading from an
earlier release". The recommend 2.0.5 users to "do a fresh installation".
Now, I'd like to know what this "slice" stuff is all about, but OK, I'll
believe I should do a fresh install...
But what does that mean? What will it do? If I were trying to "upgrade",
it is clear that it would be working with my existing file system, changing
or creating directories and/or files within it as required.
The installation documentation talks about starting from a new chunk of
empty disk, creating partitions and so forth.
What I want to know is what will happen if I try to do a "fresh
installation" into a partition that already contains a FreeBSD file system?
Will it work with that file system, or blow it away and start again?
I obviously need to preserve some files (e.g. the system/kernel
configuration files). But where can I put them that will be out from
under foot? Just another directory? On the other UNIX partition within the
same DOS partition? Into a DOS file system?
((Before you ask: I do have a backup of the system, taken a couple
of weeks ago, but more or less current. And I'll happily put recent
changes onto floppies. But my machine is a stand alone one: a bulk
restore will be a medium-scale pain, as I'll have to shift the machine to
work, get it onto the ethernet, track down a exabyte drive blah blah...
In other words, I really want to do the upgrade using the machine alone,
if that is possible. I've probably got enough disk space to move
everything out of the way, but I'd feel a lot happier if there was
an explicit statement of where "out of the way" was!))
TO be on the save side, I'll probably copy everything into a DOS partition
on a different disk from the one where I'm going to put FreeBSD: surely
*that* ought to be out of the way! But I'll be doing it wondering
whether in fact all I needed to do was... well, something simpler.
Whoever wrote the INSTALL.TXT file presumably thought the answer was too
obvious to bother mentioning. But I`m a (sophisticated/informed)
UNIX *user* who knows as little about the innards of the system as
I can get away with, and it isn't obvious to me!
And maybe, when I start into the install procedure, everything will become
clear. But life would be better if the INSTALL document had a sentence
or two telling me what would happen if I followed its advice!
((BTW: I realise this is a small point, and I don't want to seem like
I'm carping. Overall, I've found FreeBSD a very solid operating
system, and it has in my opinion put WIndows '95 to shame
in terms of reliabilty and level of frustration induced---for
instance, I've never once noticed a device "become uninstalled" under
FreeBSD... Keep up the good work. ))
Robert.
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