Three FreeBSD 6 questions

[Joe Holden]

SiteRollout.com wrote:
> I'm new to this list, so here's a hello, how are you to everyone on the
> list!
Welcome!

> I'm coming to FreeBSD from a Linux background, so whilst some things are
> pretty similar, some things are pretty different.
Excellent!

> 1.) How exactly do I know whether I am running the STABLE or CURRENT
> release, as when I run uname I can only see the following relevant info:
>  
> FreeBSD server4.domain.info 6.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE #0: Sat Sep 23
> 13:52:48 UTC 2006     root at server4.
> <mailto:root at server4.e-webhost.info:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/SERVER4>
> domain.info:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/SERVER4  i386
You would be running -RELEASE, which is a snapshot of -STABLE at a
particular point in time (Someone correct me if i'm wrong).

> And which file do I change to use a different release, and how must I update
> the system to pull in this latest release?
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html is
a good starting point, I recommend you read the handbook entirely at
least once!

> 2.) I'm a bit confused as to updating the system. As I understand, there are
> 3 areas which require updates:
>  
> i. Ports
> ii. Security updates
> iii. Kernel updates
>  
> I know how to perform the first two, but for kernel updates I can't seen to
> find a consistent unified method with talk of the "traditional" way and the
> "latest" way. What is the best way to keep my FreeBSD 6.x system up2date?
The "kernel" updates are all part of the cvsup process, as its including
in -src, you base system and kernel must always be in line, its not
"modular" like Linux is.

> 3.) One of my new FreeBSD 6.0 servers went down recently. This was odd as
> the actual server was hardly busy, but filesystem errors came up when
> booting up the server. After running fsck, server would be up for about an
> hour and then go down again. This kept happening and so I initially thought
> it was due to overheating. However cooling was all good, so after further
> investigation and googling I diagnosed the problem as being the background
> fsck which for some reason was failing, causing the server to shutdown and
> upon reboot requiring a manual fsck.
>  
> I've fixed this by disabling the background fsck and forcing the bootup fsck
> in /etc/rc.conf. At least then if the server goes down again it will fix
> itself with a full fsck when booting up. My question is whether this is
> okay, and has anyone experienced this same problem with their system? And
> why has the background fsck been failing? Where can i find further info?
>  
> Any help with these questions would be greatly appreciated.
>  
> Regards,
> Suhail.

Thanks,
Joe

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 250 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/attachments/20061026/de45f851/signature.pgp