Upgrading from 13.5-RELEASE to 14.3-RELEASE - what should I be mindful of?

Hi all,

It's been a while.

I've done some reading with more to do, and I'm wondering if I should just do a fresh install of 14.3-RELEASE, or, try upgrading from 13.5-RELEASE. If I do upgrade from 13.5-RELEASE is there anything I should be mindful of?

I need to read this one (Late-breaking FreeBSD 14 breakage) thoroughly, but that was for 14.0. How the issues with going straight to 14.3?
And in here (https://www.debugpoint.com/freebsd-14-features/) I read: "The symbolic link for /home from /usr/home won’t be created. So, make sure you migrate it properly if upgrading to FreeBSD 14 from 13."

I'm still running UFS, baremetal, with just a few packages installed.

Thanks as always,
PacketMan
 
Upgrade should be fine, one thing to watch out for is the removal of pam_opie and pam_opieaccess in /etc/pam.d/system (both modules have been deprecated and removed in 14.x). If they're still in PAM after the upgrade that will prevent you from logging in.
 
Upgrade should be fine, one thing to watch out for is the removal of pam_opie and pam_opieaccess in /etc/pam.d/system (both modules have been deprecated and removed in 14.x). If they're still in PAM after the upgrade that will prevent you from logging in.
Thank you SirDice, and it is very nice to see you are still active in this community and forum. You are like a lighthouse. 😊

If that scenario were to happen, can I still use local console (i.e. local keyboard and screen) to login, or does that apply to local access to? I did some quick reading and I'm thinking it's or SSH access only.

Before I reboot, if I see pam_opie and pam_opieaccess are still in /etc/pam.d/system, can I simply remove (delete) them?

Thanks again,
PacketMan
 
If that scenario were to happen, can I still use local console (i.e. local keyboard and screen) to login, or does that apply to local access to? I did some quick reading and I'm thinking it's or SSH access only.
/etc/pam.d/system is included a bunch of times, it would also prevent logging in on the console. But you could boot to single user and then remove it. Just something to be aware of.

Before I reboot, if I see pam_opie and pam_opieaccess are still in /etc/pam.d/system, can I simply remove (delete) them?
Yes, you can double check after the second freebsd-update install and remove them if they're still there.
 
If it's not a desktop machine (no KDE/GNOME/Whatever), and if it's a machine dedicated to one task, and has only the minimum number of packages necessary - then the upgrading should be OK. When ppl have GPUs and drivers to worry about (those are tied to specific kernel versions), that's when upgrades get hairy and error-prone. Basic idea of my post being - the simpler your setup, the easier it is to upgrade.
 
The machines in question are 'simple' machines yes, dedicated to just 2 or 3 simple tasks.

That just said, I have begun to build a 'tinker toy' laptop with desktop, and am stuck trying to get X11 working. I installed 14.3, but that would be a good bit learning exercise, now is the perfect time to install 13.5 instead, get XCFE or KDE working hopefully, and then try the update to 14.3.

Thank you for bring this point to my mind.

Thanks again,
PacketMan
 
The machines in question are 'simple' machines yes, dedicated to just 2 or 3 simple tasks.

That just said, I have begun to build a 'tinker toy' laptop with desktop, and am stuck trying to get X11 working. I installed 14.3, but that would be a good bit learning exercise, now is the perfect time to install 13.5 instead, get XCFE or KDE working hopefully, and then try the update to 14.3.

Thank you for bring this point to my mind.

Thanks again,
PacketMan
Yeah, if you want X11/Xorg working, there's no way around figuring out the GPU hardware that you have on your laptop. Once you have the proper GPU driver loaded (it depends on what hardware you have first, THEN look for packages that match the kernel of your installed OS), then Xorg should be pretty easy.

If you have AMD graphics on your laptop, you'll need AMD-oriented drivers. If you have Intel graphics, you'll need Intel-oriented drivers. The Forums are a great help for figuring out which drivers you'll need for your hardware.

HTH
 
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