updating in single-user mode

John DeStefano john.destefano at gmail.com
Tue Oct 25 06:34:55 PDT 2005


On 10/24/05, Beecher Rintoul <akbeech at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Monday 24 October 2005 02:24 pm, John DeStefano wrote:
> > When updating world, section 20.4.5 of the handbook calls for dropping
> > to single user mode.  The reasons given for this make sense.  But this
> > is a problem for me: my BSD server does not have a local K/V/M setup
> > connected directly to it; it sits on my network and I connect to it
> > via PuTTy for administration.
> >
> > Is there a way to achieve single-user mode while still being able to
> > connect remotely (via LAN)?  (I know that's something of an oximoron,
> > but I needed to ask)  And if not, am I losing any serious
> > features/functionality of the update process by _not_ dropping into
> > single user?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > ~John
>
> I don't reccommend doing installworld or kernel in multiuser, but I have never
> had any problems doing it on a lightly loaded machine. With that said what
> could bite you is your new kernel not booting or something broken in
> userland. You will then need console access (serial or local) to fix it. I
> would set up your machine with serial console access and use a laptop or
> another machine when you reboot.
>
> Beech
> --
Thank you.

Because I'm impatient and obtuse, and because I was already in the
midst of the procedure when I received your replies, I decided to
proceed with the build world process from my LAN connection.  Believe
it or not, it went (or seemed to go) without a hitch, including the
updated kernel installation.

In your opinion, where/how would I check the new system to verify that
there were no breaks during the build and install processes, and that
the system is indeed fully updated?

Thanks,
~John

%uname -a
FreeBSD zurg.thedestefanos.com 5.4-STABLE FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE #0: Mon
Oct 24 22:27:33 EDT 2005    
root at zurg.thedestefanos.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/MYKERNEL  i386


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list