Newbie question about freebsd-update: single user mode is not needed anymore?

[ASV]

Well,
I understand your concern. I've been using the freebsd-update method
since several years now and mostly remotely. I've never encounter a
problem. I haven't recompiled everything many times as I didn't really
found a tangible advantage in this method but I've never thought about
this. I believe some developer around here can provide you a neat
explanation about that (which is going to be interesting to know).

Strictly about your concern I believe whatever way you use for your
upgrade you CANNOT be 100% sure that your upgrade will go smoothly and
things like loosing control of your remote box will not happen. Even
though jumping from close releases 9.0 => 9.1 is a low risk upgrade, a
console access to your remote server (via terminal server/KVM/other) is
imperative in these cases to avoid the worst.


On Mon, 2012-12-31 at 16:50 +0100, Jose Garcia Juanino wrote:
> El lunes 31 de diciembre a las 16:27:44 CET, ASV escribió:
> > Hi Jose,
> > 
> > with the freebsd-update method you don't need to pass through the "make
> > installworld" as it's a binary patch/upgrade system.
> > Using "freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.1-RELEASE" for example allows you to
> > get your system patched directly without recompiling the kernel and the
> > userland but getting binary patches from the repo and applying these
> > directly on your system.
> > Check the following page for a more detailed explanation and be aware
> > that upgrading your ports/packages is required every time you upgrade
> > your kernel to a major version (which would be your case).
> > 
> > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html
> > 
> > Happy new year.
> 
> Thanks for your response.
> 
> The freebsd-update upgrade method is:
> 1- freebsd-update install # will install a new kernel and modules
> 2- reboot in multi user
> 3- freebsd-update install # will install new userland
> 4- reboot in multi user
> 
> The src upgrade method is:
> 1- make installkernel # will install a new kernel
> 2- reboot in single user
> 3- make installworld  # will install a new userland
> 4- reboot in multiuser
> 
> I think that the third step is essentially the same in both methods: it
> will install a new userland. But the second one require to be ran in
> single user, and the first one does not. Why?
> 
> My unique concern is that step 2 in "freebsd-update" method goes
> smootly: it will boot kernel in 9.1-RELEASE but userland in 9.0-RELEASE.
> If the system hangs giving up the net or other essential service, I will
> not be able to reach the computer via ssh.
> 
> Regards