Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 12:15:38 -0400 From: pippo@bellnet.ca To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: mergemaster problem Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.2.20021022115618.00a901b0@mail.host45.com>
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I want to upgrade FreeBSD from 4.62 to 4.7 so I can use openoffice. I find the instructions in the handbook incomplete: 21.4 Using make world In trying to use mergemaster, I find it incomprehensible as to what the program actually does and what I am supposed to direct it to do. It is not clear as to what is done with the master.passwd and group files and where they are installed or how they are modified. I tried to be ultra conservative and backed up the /etc/group and /etc/master.passwd files to *.old and then ran mergemaster. It was thereafter not clear who(what process or program) would use the new file (which, where) or how the files would be merged. I chose the 'm' option to merge the files, assuming that the existing passwords, users and groups would be merged into the new file. Then to verify, I entered the 'v' option; but this produced nothing. Thinking that the backups would be insurance, I then opted for 'i'. On exiting mergemaster, I chose to leave the temp files. I did not run the pwd_mkdb -p as suggested until after verifying the /etc directory and the /var/tmp/temproot/etc directories: SURPRISE the /etc/group, /etc/passwd and /etc/master.passwd files are empty. And there is nothintg in the /var/tmp/temproot/etc directory What in the world is going on here? I have not closed down or rebooted as I am afraid that the whole installation will be lshot to hell. What do I do? Will restoring the saved group and master.passwd files do anything? Then there is the empty passwd file. I suppose that running vipw and adduser might fix things... Also, there was no /etc/make.conf file. The installation has been pretty much "by the book" using portupgrade" ... Everything works just fine - Xfree86-4.2; cups, kde3; I just want to upgrade to 4.7 for openoffice. Please help PJ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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