Ancient FreeBSD update path

[Mike Pumford]

On 19/01/2018 12:28, Andrea Brancatelli wrote:
> Hello guys.
> 
> I have a couple of ancient FreeBSD install that I have to bring into
> this century (read either 10.4 or 11.1) :-)
> 
> I'm talking about a FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 and a couple of FreeBSD
> 9.3-RELEASE-p53.
> 
I've just done a 9.3 to 10.3 upgrade with freebsd-update and pkg. 
Networking wasn't avalable when the system was running 10.3 kernel with 
9.3 userland so I did that part of the update on the console.

That system started life as a FreeBSD 5.x system and got left to rot at 
that version for a long time because it was an internal system with no 
external security exposure. I gradually upgraded it (using source 
builds) from major version to major version until I got to 9.3 and then 
did the 9.3 to 10.3 as a binary upgrade.

Only other trap I fell into with was packages. The system uses ldap for 
auth although fortunately it does have some local network accessible 
accounts. ldap auth was broken until I did the package update as the 9.3 
pam_ldap modules caused SSH to delay password based authentication and 
the auth processes seg-faulted.

> What upgrade strategy would you suggest?
> 
> Direct jump into the future (8 -> 11)? Progressive steps (8 -> 9 -> 10
> -> 11)? Boiling water on the HDs? :-)
> 
If freebsd-update will do an upgrade from 8 to 10 or 8 to 11 and you 
have console access it ought to work. The upgrade process can be rolled 
back if the system doesn't like the new kernel for some reason and 
nothing gets installed anywhere else until the second stage of the 
upgrade. I'd probably go via 8->9.3->10/11 as those are the upgrade 
paths that were well tested.

Also don't forget the full system backups before starting. :)

Mike