Finish upgrading remote server without physically being there?

[Lowell Gilbert]

Damien Fleuriot <ml at my.gd> writes:

> On 3/2/11 5:15 PM, Ed Flecko wrote:
>> Thanks Damien.
>> 
>> :-)
>> 
>> Two questions -
>> 
>> 1.) If rebooting into single user mode isn't obviously a
>> requirement...I wonder why so many tutorials, books, etc. tell you to
>> do this?
>> 
>
> Rebooting single user ensures that most daemons aren't launched, as well
> as stuff related to networking and so on.
>
> It's safer but not mandatory per se.
>
> I've done 7.4-PRE to 8.0-REL upgrades just fine without the single user
> step, AND the machine came back alive ;)

I do this all the time too, but if the new kernel doesn't boot, you
end up in more trouble than needing an extra reboot.  The reboot part is
definitely important -- you can reboot into multiuser mode and do the
installworld that way, but if you have the new utilities and have to
drop back to an old kernel, you may have to reinstall the base system.