Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 21:56:47 -0600 From: Stephen Montgomery-Smith <stephen@showme.missouri.edu> To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Suggestion for elf upgrade Message-ID: <36C79AFF.D4FDC3DC@showme.missouri.edu>
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Yesterday I did an upgrade from 3.0-Release to 3.1-beta. I did make world, then I made the kernel. At the end of the make kernel, I got a message about the kernel being elf!!! Bad timing to find out about this - I was told to look at http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html and by this time, the code mismatch between the binary executables and the kernel made netscape unusable. Good thing I wasn't upgrading from 2.2.x, maybe then I could not have even installed lynx or Mosaic to get the info I needed. Well, I did get it figured out. But I have one suggestion for the web page http://www.freebsd.org/~peter/elfday.html It told me that I needed new bootblocks. I think a paragraph explanation of what bootblocks is would have helped a very great deal. As it was it was like telling me to wear a nuffle on my head when it is cold. Like, what is a nuffle? So what is a bootblock? I did figure out enough to get it to work (I am guessing that a bootblock is some code at the beginning of each slice that is loaded by booteasy). Second, instead of putting the warning message after making the kernel, how about putting the message at the beginning of both make world and making the kernel (and make installworld etc), so for example, to make world one has to type: make -DYES_I_REALLY_DO_KNOW_ABOUT_BOOTBLOCKS_AND_SUCH_LIKE world Maybe after a couple of years, one can get rid of this requirement. Yes, I do realise that I was out of touch not knowing about elf kernels. But there will be lots like me, and we should make it as painless as possible, since everybody who upgrades has to face this issue. Finally, I did get it all to work, and I am really pleased with what I have. It was my first experience at making FreeBSD from the source. I learned a lot. -- Stephen Montgomery-Smith stephen@math.missouri.edu 307 Math Science Building stephen@showme.missouri.edu Department of Mathematics stephen@missouri.edu University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, MO 65211 USA Phone (573) 882 4540 Fax (573) 882 1869 http://math.missouri.edu/~stephen To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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