23.6. Rebuilding World

[Ertan Küçükoglu]

Hello,

I am an old user of FreeBSD. Started using as of version 3.2. After a job
change, I had to stop using it when version 7 was under development.

These old days, for a make world, handbook was saying that after successful
compilation of world and kernel, we install kernel and then reboot into
single user mode.
Current handbook is saying that we build world, kernel. Then install kernel
and drop into single user mode. No testing of newly build kernel.

Old way was ensuring that new kernel is operational.
New way; I followed new handbook today. To upgrade system from 11-RELEASE
to 11-STABLE. I forgot to add a driver in my custom kernel and when
expecting an operational OS after a reboot, I got a crash dump. Then spent
sometime to figure whats wrong and fixed. Then rebuild kernel and installed
for an operational system.

Rebooting into single user mode makes me feel safer for the whole process.
Because, I might face with a worse problem than forgetting a driver in my
custom kernel. So worse that I cannot fix it myself and have to report and
wait for a fix from developers. Such a situation, if I followed new
handbook, it is late and I already installed world and all new binaries and
libraries. Returning back would be a complete headache for such a situation.

Just wanted to share my opinion.

Thanks.

Regards,
Ertan Küçükoğlu