From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Oct 15 14:53:35 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from drex.staff.izr.com (drex.staff.izr.com [195.26.38.16]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F3DA37B409 for ; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 14:53:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: by drex.staff.izr.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 58422337A8; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 22:53:29 +0100 (BST) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 22:53:29 +0100 From: Mark Drayton To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrading to 4.4 Message-ID: <20011015225329.C36840@drex.staff.izr.com> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20011015154852.D4944@acadia.ne.mediaone.net> <20011015222132.B36840@drex.staff.izr.com> <20011015173327.E4944@acadia.ne.mediaone.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <20011015173327.E4944@acadia.ne.mediaone.net>; from leblanc+freebsd@acadia.ne.mediaone.net on Mon, Oct 15, 2001 at 05:33:27PM -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Louis LeBlanc (leblanc+freebsd@acadia.ne.mediaone.net) wrote: > On 10/15/01 10:21 PM, Mark Drayton sat at the `puter and typed: > > Louis LeBlanc (leblanc+freebsd@acadia.ne.mediaone.net) wrote: > > > On 10/15/01 02:37 PM, legg@iastate.edu sat at the `puter and > > > typed: > > > > [upgrading using cvsup] > > > > > > [installing world before kernel] > > > > Sorry to be finicky, but this is potentially a very dangerous way of > > upgrading. IMHO the safest way is follows: > > > > make buildworld > > make buildkernel > > make installkernel > > (reboot) > > make installworld > > mergemaster > > (reboot) > > Actually, you really should installworld before building the kernel. > I have never had trouble with this, and this follows the suggestions I > have seen on this list in the last 2 or 3 months. That is how I > upgraded from 4.3 to 4.4 with not a single hitch, hangup, or > hesitation. Well, okay. Each to their own etc. > > You should build a new kernel then reboot to ensure the new kernel > > works. It's easy to recover from a broken kernel but not from a > > system that won't work because the world is too new for the kernel > > (which could happen if you install world before kernel). > > That is what my suggestion does. If you use the command: make > buildworld && make installworld > > The second part will only happen if the first succeeds. You can > continue that to: make buildworld && make installworld && reboot with > the same effect. If the build fails, the install won't happen. If > the install fails, there will be no reboot. No, 'make installworld' will run if the build process returns 0. Just becuase the build process returns 0 doesn't mean you will have a world that will run without problems. If any of your system binaries (mount etc) are broken becuase of a goofed make.conf or any other reason you're going to be left with a sorry loking system. If you build a broken kernel you only need to do 'boot /kernel.old' (warning: may be paraphrased) at the boot prompt and you've got your old kernel back. > You ever sit and watch the screen while buildworld went on? Talk > about a cure for insomnia. Yes, too many times... > > When you know the new kernel is okay you can get on with installing > > the new world and mergemastering. > > And how would you tell if your kernel is ok other than a successful > build and a reboot? Like I said, the '&&' says if that one succeeded, > to this. Again, a zero exit code doesn't guarantee a working kernel/system/binary. The point is if you can fall back on an old kernel very easily. It's (damn near) impossible to fall back on an old world if the new one is broken. > Mergemaster may be required to boot the new kernel if there are some > new config or default files. Better to do that before rebooting the > kernel. Unlikely. The kernel has finished 'booting' before the filesystems are even mounted. I don't care which way you build world; IMHO mine (and the handbooks[1]) method takes as few risks as possible. [1] http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/makeworld.html Cheers, -- Mark Drayton To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message