best overall upgrade from 8.x?

[sthaug at nethelp.no]

> > > >>> I'd wait a month or so and, if no problems that might impact you pop
> > > up,
> > > >>> I'd go with 10.1
> > > >> Uh... is direct upgrade (using sources) possible from 8.4 to 10.1?
> > > >> No need to step through 9.x?
> > > >
> > > > Even the move from 9.2 (a near year old 9/stable) to 10.1 (stable/10 as
> > > > of about 3 weeks ago) is slightly problematic.
> > > >
> > > > Following the normal upgrade procedure of installkernel and then
> > > > rebooting with the userland untouched runs into a problem whereby
> > > > rc.conf falls apart with a shower of eval errors, no networking, ...
> > > >
> > > > I do not know the cause.
> > >
> > > I almost certainly know the cause: you are supposed to reboot into
> > > single user mode after installkernel.
> > 
> > 
> > This is almost certainly not the cause.  Something else in the horked up
> > given procedure or some omission of facts is the likely cause. Fortunately,
> > nice people have already created documentation on how to do this:
> > 
> > https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/makeworld.html
> > 
> > 
> 
> No.  It is absolutely the cause.  It's clear from the original poster's
> report of errors in rc scripts after booting on the new kernel.  If the
> instructions were followed you'd end up in single-user mode and the old
> rc scripts would never have been run before the installworld put the new
> ones in.

Unfortunately this is a problem since some of us need to be able to
perform a remote upgrade. Yes, I know this is not supported.

I have been able to do so up to 9.3 so far - and I expect that I'll
be able to do it for 10.1 also - though the steps may be slightly
different from the standard procedure.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug at nethelp.no