Upgrade old System

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:46:59 -0800, Doug Hardie wrote:
> > On 11 November 2017, at 00:35, Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
> > 
> > On Sat, 11 Nov 2017 00:16:35 -0800, Doug Hardie wrote:
> >> I have a remote host that has not been on or available for several years.  It just came back up and I need to upgrade it.
> >> 
> >> FreeBSD waldo.remotesupportservicesllc.com 8.2-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3 #0: Tue Sep 27 18:07:27 UTC 2011     root at i386-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Freebsd-update does not work:
> >> 
> >> waldo# freebsd-update upgrade -r 11.1-RELEASE
> >> Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... none found.
> >> Fetching metadata signature for 8.2-RELEASE from update.FreeBSD.org... failed.
> >> No mirrors remaining, giving up.
> >> waldo# freebsd-update fetch
> >> Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... none found.
> >> Fetching metadata signature for 8.2-RELEASE from update.FreeBSD.org... failed.
> >> No mirrors remaining, giving up.
> >> 
> >> Is there a way to make that work?
> > 
> > For such a high delta (8.2 -> 11.1), I'd say that a re-installation
> > from scratch is perhaps the easier way to go. Depending on how this
> > particular system can be accessed, preparing tarballs could be an
> > option, or remote-booting an installation media. While freebsd-update
> > was already available on 8.2, it probably cannot directly update to
> > 11.1 as there are way too many architectural changes on the way.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > PS.
> > FreeBSD 8.2-STABLE #1: Wed Aug 24 10:25:44 CEST 2011 :-)
> 
> Unfortunately, re-installation is not possible.  Its just not
> accessible except via ssh.

Okay, this is limiting your options. Maybe you can use source
update, but not directly from 8.2 to 11.1, but instead to 9.0,
10.0, 11.0; it's possible that you also need to upgrade each
of the major versions to the maximum minor version first, then
make the switch to the next major version.

Another option is to prepare tarballs from a verified (!) new
system version, scp them over, and then use them to overwrite
the existing system binaries. This system has to be preconfigured
so when you reboot, all neccessary settings are already in place.



> However, I found the problem.  DNS was not configured properly.
> Now I am able to at least start the upgrade process.  I will
> jump to 9.3 first.  However, I have to go and fix the issue
> with the failed integrity check first.  Fortunately I saved
> the patch for that.  Now I just have to find it ;-)

Yes; from 9.2, you should be able to get at least to 10.0, and
then to 11.1 using freebsd-update directly.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...