Reinstalling, then upgrading (Was Re: Salvageable? (Was Re: make installworld error))

[Curtis Vaughan]

Thanks to everyone who has been answering my questions over the past 
several days (weeks) concerning installing and upgrading FreeBSD.

I am now going to try again.  I am installing v. 4.8 on a server.  This 
server is to be a Postfix w/Courier IMAP server integrated into a 
Linux-based network, authentication centralized using PAM & LDAP.  
That's about it.

Now, some people might say, don't install 4.8 go straight for 5.x.  The 
reason I am doing this, however, is because I want to not only know how 
to perform upgrades, but I want hands on experience.  So, hopefully I 
am not making this too difficult for me.

Finally, while I'm reinstalling 4.8, I would like to know something 
about the following.
It seems to me that cvsup is actually downloading the entire repository 
of packages for FreeBSD.  Is that really what one has to do to perform 
an upgrade?  It seems like what you would need to do is merely upgrade 
those packages necessary for the latest kernel, then upgrade the 
kernel, then upgrade all installed packages.  (Packages meaning ports, 
right?)

Thanks again!

Curtis

On 23 Aug, 2004, at 11:10, Steven Friedrich wrote:

> On Monday 23 August 2004 01:58 pm, Curtis Vaughan wrote:
>> On 23 Aug, 2004, at 10:51, Steven Friedrich wrote:
>>> On Monday 23 August 2004 01:39 pm, Curtis Vaughan wrote:
>>>> So, could someone tell me if my system is salvageable or not and 
>>>> what
>>>> I
>>>> need to do?
>>>> Or, should I just start over?
>>>>
>>>> Curtis
>>>>
>>>> On 21 Aug, 2004, at 17:06, Curtis Vaughan wrote:
>>>>> So, it is my understanding that I did in fact do things right (or
>>>>> that
>>>>> is
>>>>> to say that The Complete FreeBSD had the right directions.  But 
>>>>> that
>>>>> something else went wrong.
>>>>>
>>>>> BTW, I installed 4.8 from scratch.  Then spent a couple of days
>>>>> preparing
>>>>> to do a cvsup making sure that I set everything up right (sources:
>>>>> Complete FreeBSD, freebsd.org, and this list.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then I did the cvsup.  Everything else I've already written about 
>>>>> in
>>>>> a
>>>>> previous letter.
>>>>>
>>>>> Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that booting into an old kernel is 
>>>>> an
>>>>> option.  I have looked at the files on my system and there is no
>>>>> kernel.old or anything like it. There is only a kernel directory
>>>>> under
>>>>> the
>>>>> /boot/ directory.
>>>>>
>>>>> What information do I need to provide to perhaps salvage this 
>>>>> system?
>>>>> And what steps did I possibly miss?
>>>>>
>>>>> Curtis
>>>>>
>>>>>> "Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P." <kdk at daleco.biz> writes:
>>>>>>> Yup.  Go back to the top --- I missed where
>>>>>>> in your list of steps you actually *installed*
>>>>>>> the new kernel...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That would be where he said:
>>>>>>>> make kernel
>>>>>>
>>>>>> which is equivalent to "make buildkernel installkernel".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It doesn't explain quite what's happening here, though -- and he
>>>>>> didn't even *hint* at such basic clues as what version he was
>>>>>> updating
>>>>>> from or to (there may be extra steps for large updating jumps).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Booting the old kernel is certainly worth a try before starting
>>>>>> over,
>>>>>> though; the system is quite likely to be salvageable.
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
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>>>
>>> Try to boot into single-user mode, i.e., when the system boots, it'll
>>> display
>>> a 10 second countdown. Hit spacebar to abort the countdown.  Then 
>>> type
>>> boot
>>> -s and it'll boot into single-user mode with only the root partition
>>> mounted.
>>>
>>> type mount -a to get the other partitions mounted.
>>>
>>> Then redo your buildworld,etc., but skip mergemaster stuff.
>>>
>>> Here's the steps:
>>> cd /usr/src
>>> make buildworld
>>> make buildkernel KERNCONF=yourkernelname (you DID copy GENERIC and
>>> customize
>>> it didn't you?)
>>> make installkernel KERNCONF=yourkernelname
>>> make installworld
>>> reboot
>>>
>>> Skipping the mergemaster stuff will mean that any recent changes to
>>> various
>>> config files will be missing, but you should be able to come up
>>> multi-user.
>>>
>>> If these steps fail, it'll probably be easier to just reinstall.
>>
>> As I wrote in an earlier letter, I can't get into single-user mode.
>> Here's what happens after using the boot -s option:
>>
>> It's asks: Enter full pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh
>>
>> But when I hit RETURN, it says: pid 7 (ssh), uid -: exited on signal 
>> 12
>> Aug 20 08:41:58 init: single user shell terminated, restarting
>>
>> and then it asks again: Enter full path....
>>
>> I have tried also manually entering in:
>> /bin/sh
>> /bin/csh
>> /bin/chsh
>> /usr/local/bin/bash
>> etc.
>> etc.
>>
>> Curtis
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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>> "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>
> unless you are expert enough to use FreeBSD boot and repair floppies, I
> recommend you just reinstall.
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