FreeBSD 5.4: Is it generally unstable?

[Julian H. Stacey]

> "something's up" with the stability of the 5.4 release. If I were to deploy
> a server right now, would a seasoned FreeBSD user use 4.11 or 5.4?

My experience: go 5.3 or 4.11, but avoid 5.4. Here's why: I've
downgraded my main amd64 tower & 386 laptop from 5.4 to 5.3. I've
also abandoned amd64 for i386.  (PS ref.  `seasoned' I've been with
FreeBSD since before it had release numbers :-)

I havent had time to analyse or dmesg all my problems, but
I got tired of 5.4 & amd64 pain & needed lost functionality
back.  Both those boxes are dual boot partitons, but both just had
main 5.4-rel. & spare 5.4-rel for rescue.  Now I've wound back to
5.3 & regained my lost functionality, I'll be taking one but Not
both partitions on one or each host, forward to (possibly) 5.4-rel,
or more likely stable or current & amd64 native (for the one box)
again, & analysing problems & fixing &/ or bug reporting with dmesg
etc.  But the one thing I will Not be doing is raising all partitions
to 5.4.  5.4-rel is a pain here, 5.3-rel. is better for me.

A few problems I've had include:
	rdist works on 5.3 source host, but not from 5.4+amd64
		(yes, I'm sure someone's out there will work, but
		Mine doesn't (user & su) & does with 5.3, which iis
		all that maters to me :-) also rdist depends on
		which of rdist & rdist6 & 44bsd-rdist, & which
		protocol, & what version other end etc, which is
		why I'd not mentioned till now, & yes I know rsync
		works too, but I'm comfortable with rdist[6]) &
		5.3, not 5.4.
	usbd (i386+5.4) fails to recognise my sim card on a USB Cruzer,
		but 5.3 works OK
	various ports dont work for amd64 (or say they dont even if they do.
	ports/ (as usual/ often) is a mess, various broken things,  competing
		versions & a host of other niggles, (well I use a Lot of
		ports, to be precise I use all of
  http://berklix.com/~jhs/src/bsd/fixes/FreeBSD/ports/jhs/*/Makefile.local
		& life's too short to document & fix all problems, 
		(+ prob reports dont belong here but in dmesg. or ports@)
	make has a problem on amd64 5.4-rel., I reported it, & tested &
		reported OK on fixes from  Harti Brandt, who wrote
		Thu, 2 Jun: I have committed it to RELENG_5. I've
		set the MFC timer to two weeks.
	GCC 3.4.2 on 5.4-RELEASE has a bug for amd64,
		I started avoiding that by putting 
			CFLAGS=              -O0
		in /etc/make.conf
		More info from:
			Message from "David O'Brien" <obrien at freebsd.org>
		of "Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:26:15 PDT."
			 <20050602082615.GA36096 at dragon.NUXI.org>
I think I had some other problems I can't remember off hand, but I
got tired of agravation so retreated to 5.3-rel.  I also run 4.10,
4.11 & various 5.* on other gates, net servers, & internal hosts.

Doubtless 5.4 has loads of great additions over 5.3, doubtless most
of my hastles can be fixed/ avoided/ diagnosed etc, but it was just
too much hastle all at once, hence my "back to 5.3 & forward to
stable on just one partition" dual approach.  This is Not a complaint,
I still Really like FreeBSD, I'm just less enthusiastic about
5.4-RELEASE than 5.3.  (Perhaps one might find others saying the
opposite probably depends what features one uses).

-
Julian Stacey        Net & Sys Eng Consultant, Munich       http://berklix.com
Mail in Ascii (Html=Spam).  Ihr Rauch = mein allergischer Kopfschmerz.