getting a current system

[Matthew Seaman]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2004 at 08:21:21PM -0400, Aaron Walker wrote:
> I've been trying to get an up-to-date FreeBSD system running for the
> past 2 weeks, but keep running into problems.  I've tried both 5.2.1 and
> 4.9 (with 4.9 giving me more problems believe it or not).  I'm pretty
> sure I followed the steps in the handbook correctly, but I might be
> wrong.  Basically, I'd like to verify that I am doing this correctly. 
> Right after a fresh install I have been doing:
> 
>  - Editing supfiles in /usr/share/examples/cvsup.  Specifically, the
> doc-supfile, ports-supfile and (stable-supfile for 4.9 and
> standard-supfile for 5.2.1).  Changed the CVS host and the default base
> to /usr/local/etc/cvsup
>  - Ran 'cvsup -g -L 2 SUPFILE' for the supfiles above that were edited.
>  - Created /etc/make.conf with simple flags:
> 	CPUTYPE=athlon-xp
> 	CFLAGS=-O -pipe
> 	MAKE_SHELL=sh
> 	NOPROFILE=true
>  - Ran 'mergemaster -p' to check if any config changes are needed before
> running 'make buildworld' 
>  - cd /usr/src && make -j4 buildworld
>  - make buildkernel (for now I have just used the GENERIC until I get
> this all working)
>  - make installkernel
>  - Reboot to single-user mode
>  - make installworld
>  - mergemaster
> 
> Is this all that is needed to update the system?  4.9 gave me the most
> problems during and after the above steps.  I am really determined to
> get this working, despite all the problems I am having.  A fresh install
> of 5.2.1 has just finished, so I am gonna try this again (hopefully with
> the help of you guys).

Yes, that is a pretty fair summary of the steps required to update a
system.  There's a couple of other points, neither of which should be
anything that blocks things from working:

 i) MAKE_SHELL -- as far as I can tell, this was a proposal that was
    either never committed to the FreeBSD sources, or was once
    committed and has since been removed.  Although this variable is
    documented in make.conf(5)...

    The original proposal can be seen here:

        http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=36961+0+archive/2000/freebsd-hackers/20000430.freebsd-hackers

    but greping the 4-STABLE sources doesn't return any hits, except
    for that man page, and the particular case of libreadline, where
    MAKE_SHELL is used as a variable in it's configure system.

    In any case, the presence or absence of MAKE_SHELL in your
    /etc/make.conf should not have any effect on what you're trying to
    do.  I'd leave it out myself.

ii) Using parallel make -- the '-j 4' flags.  Certainly should work,
    but if you're running into problems, this should be the first
    thing you drop when trying to debug them.  

The only other thing that leaps out at me as a possible problem is:

    CPUTYPE=athlon-xp

Under 4.x that's not one of the recognised settings.  You would want:

    CPUTYPE=k7

in that case.  But as you say, you're using 5.2.1 now, where it is one
of the recognised CPU types.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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