Re: user feedback

Hi again,

I kept my VM around, and upgraded to Beta 2 a few hours after 
announcement. However, I have noticed that only few packages upgraded 
from b1 to b2, so in the end I had a mix of b1 and b2 packages 
installed. Is this fine and as it should be for future installations?

Today I upgraded to beta3, and realized many more packages being 
upgraded from b1 to b3, and some from b2 to b3. Some stayed at b1, some 
at b2 etc. Though I know that updates did not touch all files in the 
past, after an update I had the perception my operating system was 
viewed as a nice complete bundle (well, of course, two actually: the 
kernel version and the userland) of files which all were at a specific 
version. Now having packages with b1, b2, b3 it seems a bit odd since I 
don't know if the pkg upgrade just had an error or the mirror was not in 
sync or something else did not work the way it should.

Am I really on Beta 3? Or is my system in an inconsistent state because 
I have Beta1, Beta2, Beta3 packages installed? Or is having b3 packages 
just a sign to sit back and relax and be fine with having packages < b3 
and as usually trust the release process? Will all new package versions 
be accompanied by erratas or security announcements once 15.0-RELEASE is 
released? (I just don't like to do manual research if such updates are 
silently available in form of new patch/minor versions without some kind 
of information...)

All in all I think I am growing a friendship with pkgbase, the fast 
upgrade was a joy to watch. Thanks for all the hard work!

Best regards,

Robert



On 15.10.25 14:32, infoomatic wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I just want to give some feedback regarding package base. I have been 
> using FreeBSD personally since 4.x and professionally since 9.x, also my 
> workstation is on FreeBSD since 2016 so I would say I have some 
> experience with the best operating system in the world.
> 
> I have not yet had time to dig deeper into pkgbase, however, after 
> reading the call for testing I just wanted to give it a go in a VM, here 
> my observations with 14.3-RELEASE/15.0-BETA1 from various scenarios I 
> have played through.
> 
> 1.)
> First I noticed I could not easily find the documentation I was looking 
> for, specifically the wiki mentions that it obsoletes freebsd-update. 
> man freebsd-update does not mention anything, and using pkgbasify.lua 
> does not delete freebsd-update. So I now had two ways to update, which I 
> find ambiguous. Also strange that "pkg update" installed kernel "14.3- 
> RELEASE-p4", however, after that, a freebsd-update rolled over "14.3- 
> RELEASE-p3" again, and I had no idea in what state my system was really 
> after issuing both commands. (fully aware that this is not intended by 
> design, but having two tools interfering and leaving us in an 
> inconsistent state is awkward for us users). Strangely, also in 15.0 
> freebsd-update is here.
> 
> 2.)
> I pkgbasified the 14.3 VM, and tried to upgrade via the method mentioned 
> in the wiki. During the upgrade, the command aborted with:
> 
> [363/402] Deleting files for curl-8.16.0:   2%
> pkg-static: compat-libraries-20251015101859 conflicts with compat- 
> libraries-20251015101859 (installs files into the same place). 
> Problematic file: /usr/local/lib/compat/pkg/libcurl.so.4
> [363/402] Deleting files for curl-8.16.0: 100%
> [364/402] Reinstalling brotli-1.1.0,1...
> pkg-static: sqlite error while executing BEGIN IMMEDIATE TRANSACTION  in 
> file pkgdb.c:1206: cannot start a transaction within a transaction
> 
> After issuing the pkg update command, the pkg upgrade command with 15.0 
> ABI does not do anything. I rebooted. After that, pkg upgrade resulted in:
> 
> [12/34] Deleting files for readline-8.2.13_2:  21%
> pkg: compat-libraries-20251015104532 conflicts with compat- 
> libraries-20251015104532 (installs files into the same place). 
> Problematic file: /usr/local/lib/compat/pkg/libhistory.so.8
> [12/34] Deleting files for readline-8.2.13_2:  31%
> pkg: compat-libraries-20251015104532 conflicts with compat- 
> libraries-20251015104532 (installs files into the same place). 
> Problematic file: /usr/local/lib/compat/pkg/libreadline.so.8
> [12/34] Deleting files for readline-8.2.13_2: 100%
> [13/34] Deinstalling rsync-3.4.1_3...
> [13/34] Deleting files for rsync-3.4.1_3: 100%
> [14/34] Reinstalling libiconv-1.17_1...
> pkg: sqlite error while executing BEGIN IMMEDIATE TRANSACTION  in file 
> pkgdb.c:1206: cannot start a transaction within a transaction
> 
> Confidence is not something that comes to mind here ...
> 
> 3.)
> I upgraded the 14.3 VM via freebsd-update to 15.0-BETA1. Then I 
> pkgbasified the system. "pkg remove FreeBSD-wpa" resultet in:
> 
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Cannot solve problem using SAT solver, trying another plan
> Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
> 1 packages requested for removal: 0 locked, 1 missing
> 
> Strange, what now?
> 
> 4.) I bricked the system with "pkg delete -af", as was discussed already 
> on this mailing list. This should not be possible, in my opinion.
> 
> So far I have no idea how I can upgrade to 15.0-BETA1 with a working 
> pkgbase system. This short journey into pkgbase made me leave it the 
> same day though what I have read sounded promising. Now I am really 
> worried about the stability of my systems with 15.0 (the plan is still 
> that freebsd-update only works until the 14 branch, so no support in 
> 15?), however I am confident it will stabilize and then I'll give it 
> another shot.
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Robert
>