8.x grudges

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 1:17 PM, Mikhail T. <mi+thun at aldan.algebra.com> wrote:
> 07.07.2010 14:59, Jeremy Chadwick ???????(??):
>>>
>>>      FREEBSD_COMPAT7 kernel option is, apparently, a requirement (and
>>>      thus not an "option") -- the kernel-config files, that worked with
>>>      7.x, break without this option in them (in addition to all the
>>>      nuisance, that's documented in UPDATING -- which, somehow, makes
>>>      the breakage acceptable). config(8) would not warn about this, but
>>>      kernel build fails.
>>>
>>
>> We don't use this option (meaning it's removed from our kernels).  It's
>> definitely not required.  All it does is ensure your kernel can
>> comprehend executables/binaries built on 7.x.
>>
>
> Attached is the kernel config-file (i386), that worked fine under 7.x. The
> kernel-compile will break (some *freebsd7* structs undefined), without the
> COMPAT_FREEBSD7 option. Try it for yourself...

While you may get lucky sometimes, it's very *VERY* rare to be able to
re-use a kernel config file across major version releases, at least
unchanged.

Going from 4.x to 5.x required a new kernel config file.   (4.x was my
first real install of FreeBSD that was upgraded.)
Going from 5.x to 6.x required a new kernel config file.
Going from 6.x to 7.x required a new kernel config file.

Why do you think going from 7.x to 8.x would be any different?

When doing major version upgrades, always start with GENERIC from the
new release, and add build your custom config file from there.  This
is way things have been for many, many, many years.

Minor version upgrades (7.x to 7.y) rarely require a new kernel config
file, although it's still a good idea to start with GENERIC for the
duration of the upgrade.  But major upgrades have pretty much always
required it.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash at gmail.com