complicated downgrade

[Daniel Lang]

Hi,

Valentin Nechayev wrote on Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 12:12:48PM +0300:
[..]
> I need to downgrade a remote FreeBSD system from 5.1-release to 4.8-release
> remotely without any local help (except possible hitting Reset).
> Don't ask why the collocation provider is too ugly and too far from me; it's
> given and unchangeable. This system never was 4.* (began from 5.0-DP2).
[..]

I predict, you will need serial console access. Chances are 
very high, that something even minor goes wrong, such that you
cannot login to the box using ssh at some stage. You might
still be able to complete the downgrade if you would have console
access.

People, who can hit the reset button, can also connect
two serial ports with a null modem cable. So you should
convince somebody to do that. Set up the serial console
port on the machine should be feasable remotely without 
great risks. For the 4.x System you should also provide
a kernel with serial console enabled.

You chance of success will be much better, as I would see it.

Good luck,
 Daniel
-- 
IRCnet: Mr-Spock                    - All your .sigs are belong to us -
 Daniel Lang * dl at leo.org * +49 89 289 18532 * http://www.leo.org/~dl/
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