Experiences with systemupdate Freebsd 4.9 -> 5.3

[Ruben de Groot]

On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 01:12:32PM +0100, Volker Lieder typed:
> Hello list,
> has anybody tried to update a freebsd 4.9 incl. apache, mysql and other 
> ports to 5.3 or 5.2?

Many times without problems. Just stick to the letter of /usr/src/UPDATING
and /usr/ports/UPDATING and you'll be fine.

> I have a server with performanceproblems and want to try an other 
> release.

Allthough performance has improved significantly in the 5.i -> 5.3 
timespan, there are still areas where 4.x outperforms 5.x. This will
certainly improve while 5-stable evolves, but right now you might 
even be worse off performancewise after an upgrade.
Unless off course you know exactly what kind of performanceproblems
you're dealing with and how they are 'fixed' in 5.x

> I found a howto on freebsd to update from 4.x to 5.3, but i don't know 
> if it works.
> Perhaps you can send me your reports/results/tipps and tricks.

- make backups
- if you're not familiar with src upgrading, do a clean reinstall
- make backups
- test the procedure on a non-critical system
- don't forget to make backups