Questions about upgrading from 4.6.2 to 4.7 (and beyond)

[Subhro Sankha Kar]

James Schmidt writes: 

> I apologize in advance for my unfamiliarity with the workings of the 
> FreeBSD world.  Out of the several hundred machines I administer I have 
> only the one FreeBSD box, and it is considered a production server, so I 
> don't get much chance to play around with it. 
> 
> At any rate, one of the tasks I'm going to be undertaking shortly is to 
> migrate it from 4.6.2-RELEASE-p3  to 4.7-RELEASE (and soon after that, to 
> 4.8) and I have several questions.  Actually, to be more precise, I would 
> just like someone to verify that what I am doing is correct. 
> 
> First, the overall cvsup process - I want to make sure I am doing this 
> right, someone please let me know if any of this is incorrect or 
> inefficient.  Below is my cvsupfile: 
> 
> *default  host=cvsup13.FreeBSD.org
> *default  base=/usr
> *default  prefix=/usr
> *default  release=cvs tag=RELENG_4_7
> *default  delete use-rel-suffix
> *default  compress
> src-all
> # added manually... collection will be filtered through the refuse file
> ports-all tag=. 
> 
> I should be using the RELEASE branch, and not STABLE or CURRENT, correct ? 
> 
> The process I follow to cvsup is as follows: 
> 
> # cd /src/cvsup
> # cvsup -g -L 2 ./cvsupfile 
> 
> Once that is complete, the next steps are to build the kernel and the 
> sources - and up until now, I've always compiled the kernel the 
> old-fashioned way (config, make depend, make, make install) - with 4.7, 
> should I begin using the new and improved method of kernel compiling, as 
> follows ? 
> 
> # cd /usr/src
> # make buildworld
> # make buildkernel KERNCONF=<kernelname>
> # make installkernel KERNCONF=<kernelname>
> <reboot>
> # make installworld 
> 
> I am sorry to be asking such basic questions.  I've read through the 
> pertinent sections of the online FreeBSD manual  and I *think* what I am 
> doing is correct, but I want to make absolutely sure before I reboot the 
> machine and end up with a kernel panic, umountable root or something 
> equally as horrific.  If anyone sees any glaring omissions or any other 
> problems with what I'm doing, please let me know.  Again, many thanks. 
> 
> James Schmidt 
> 
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Hello James,
There is nothing to apologize. A person can't know everything in the world. 
What you are doing is exactly right. By the way if you want to have some 
knowledge on BSD then do have a glance at the FreeBSD Handbook available at 
the official website. Regards 

Subhro Sankha Kar
IIIT-Calcutta