Upgrade FreeBSD 7.1 to 7.2
Robert Watson
rwatson at FreeBSD.org
Sat Aug 22 11:32:12 UTC 2009
On Fri, 21 Aug 2009, Miroslav Lachman wrote:
>> I would like to do a binary upgrade from 7.1 to 7.2. I've seen the
>> instructions here: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/7.2R/announce.html
>>
>> I've heard that it's safest to start the machine in single user mode when
>> doing upgrades, but I see no notice about it in the announcement.
>>
>> So my question is: Is it ok to do this binary upgrade without start single
>> user mode first?
>>
>> If no, must I reboot my machine to enter single user mode?
>
> I always did upgrade in multiuser for minimalising the downtime of servers.
I always do it this way, but accept the risk involved. I actually did my 7.x
-> 8.x upgrade on my web/shell server this way, with users logged in, but I
think that's probably only for the brave of heart.
FWIW, the main problem I ran into with my 8.0 upgrade is that 8.0 uses the
uart(4) driver for serial ports, and sio(4), 7.2's default, has been removed.
They require mutually exclusive lines in device.hints and different /etc/ttys
lines. If you rely on a serial console, I would recommend first switching 7.2
to using uart, pausing for a bit, and then switching forward to 8 so that you
separate the risks associated with changing console drivers from those
associated with sliding a major kernel version.
Robert
More information about the freebsd-stable
mailing list