Recovering base system files after failed installworld - RESOLVED

[Matthew Seaman]

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On 16/03/2010 22:34:47, Alejandro Imass wrote:
> Thanks Matthew for such a prompt and detailed answer and to give me
> the confidence I was in the right track! I think my main mistake was
> to jump from such an old version to the latest 7 release. This time
> I'm going a version at a time, reading UPDATING every time, and yes, I
> will make system backups ;-)

Heh.  No problem.

You shouldn't need to upgrade to every different version in turn -- in
fact, I'd have been fairly confident you could have gone direct from 6.2
to 7.3 or 8.0 in one step, if not for the gvinum problem you ran into.

Are you using a custom kernel?  If you're using GENERIC or something
close to it, and just kldloading the modules you need for gvinum support
a good thing to try out would be booting from the install media for
various FreeBSD versions and testing gvinum compatibility. Try burning
some of the disc1 or dvd .iso images (or the 8.0 USB key image) for
various different releases, booting from them into fixit mode (or
whatever it's called: there's a complete system image on those disks
that can run stand-alone) and trying to get the system to recognise and
mount your gvinum partitions without modifying them.  If it doesn't
work, then no harm done -- just pull the installation media and reboot.
 If it does work, then you can upgrade with a bit more confidence.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

- -- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
                                                  Kent, CT11 9PW
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