I'm fighting with this machine I want to seriously upgrade from 8.2 to 9. We can call it a multi-purpose machine I do use for very many private stuff. It is not only a file server, it is also a desktop for some jails and some video editing, it also have a SSH server becouse I need to administer it from other locations, often very far away locations, sometimes it serve some web pages in emergency cases.
It is perfectly fit for my needs, it runs on ridicolous hardware (this is the reason becouse I choose FreeBSD over other OS: it runs smooth on affordable, old, cheap hardware) and it is solid.
Said this, my main desktop for multimedia purposing with latest hardware and technology is a completely and continuosly hardware updated machine running a Windows 7 Ultimate OS. IMHO, great OS, the best Microsoft did, also if I also used to administer NT4 servers like 20 years ago totally solid.
Now, my main Desktop updates and upgrades are so simple and painless. Windows Update do a perfect job and when I had to Upgrade from Vista to Win 7, the DVD served the purpose very very well.
Now I want to update this important FreeBSD machine it served and it still serve me very well, I want to do a clean job then... and here is the problem, the path to a easy upgrade it don't exist on the FreeBSD world.
After posting something here. I decided the only way to go for package updating was the one explained in the Portmaster man page. With some modifications of the command line strings, I made a package list with the --list-origins option and then deleted all the packages and reinstalled them with this modifiles string:
[cmd=]portmaster -D --packages-if-newer `cat /root/installed-port-list`[/cmd]
This string seems to work quietly well, it download packages when same or new then ports and then it compile the others.
Considering I do have 1102 packages installed in this system, the time for the upgrade is totally not acceptable. I think I have like a 2 days down time. Too much.
Considering my main file server is a Archlinux machine I do update in minutes using my 100 Mbit Internet connection, I'm not sure if it's just me or seriously updating a FreeBSD machine is a titanic job.
I talk about packages obviously becouse the base system can be upgraded quietly fast using freebsd-update.
Considering I do have other three FreeBSD waiting for an upgrade, do you have any idea for a faster path?
Honest, the Vermaden Howto, very good and very completed, it is not what I call a rolling upgrade, it is even painfull compared to the path I choose.
It is perfectly fit for my needs, it runs on ridicolous hardware (this is the reason becouse I choose FreeBSD over other OS: it runs smooth on affordable, old, cheap hardware) and it is solid.
Said this, my main desktop for multimedia purposing with latest hardware and technology is a completely and continuosly hardware updated machine running a Windows 7 Ultimate OS. IMHO, great OS, the best Microsoft did, also if I also used to administer NT4 servers like 20 years ago totally solid.
Now, my main Desktop updates and upgrades are so simple and painless. Windows Update do a perfect job and when I had to Upgrade from Vista to Win 7, the DVD served the purpose very very well.
Now I want to update this important FreeBSD machine it served and it still serve me very well, I want to do a clean job then... and here is the problem, the path to a easy upgrade it don't exist on the FreeBSD world.
After posting something here. I decided the only way to go for package updating was the one explained in the Portmaster man page. With some modifications of the command line strings, I made a package list with the --list-origins option and then deleted all the packages and reinstalled them with this modifiles string:
[cmd=]portmaster -D --packages-if-newer `cat /root/installed-port-list`[/cmd]
This string seems to work quietly well, it download packages when same or new then ports and then it compile the others.
Considering I do have 1102 packages installed in this system, the time for the upgrade is totally not acceptable. I think I have like a 2 days down time. Too much.
Considering my main file server is a Archlinux machine I do update in minutes using my 100 Mbit Internet connection, I'm not sure if it's just me or seriously updating a FreeBSD machine is a titanic job.
I talk about packages obviously becouse the base system can be upgraded quietly fast using freebsd-update.
Considering I do have other three FreeBSD waiting for an upgrade, do you have any idea for a faster path?
Honest, the Vermaden Howto, very good and very completed, it is not what I call a rolling upgrade, it is even painfull compared to the path I choose.