Call for testing: pkgbase support in 15.0

USerID said:
# freebsd-version -kru
Bash: 
14.3-RELEASE-p5
14.3-RELEASE-p5
14.3-RELEASE-p5
Updated all packages, updated the OS to *-p5.
Ran pkgbasify.lua
Updated 370 packages, requiring up to 2 GB of free disk space.
Downloaded 528 MB, waited for the conversion to complete.
Rebooted. So far, so good.
My dumb question is: how do I update the OS to 14.4 now?
I assume it's just pkg update & pkg upgrade?
Click to expand...
You can probably upgrade to 14.4 next year. The releng/14.4 branch won't be created until February:
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/14.4R/schedule/
 
I'm confused.
I've always updated everything sequentially: 14.0-->14.1-->14.2-->14.3. Etc.
But now, to jump from 14.3-->14.4-->15.0, do I have to wait a long time until 14.4 is released?
Or can I upgrade to 15.0 directly from 14.3?
And I still don't understand why there's a schedule, but beta-3 hasn't been released yet?
https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/schedule/
Are these schedules accurate, or should I ignore them altogether?
Why, for example, wasn't beta-2 (version 15) released yesterday?
 
USerID said:
The news just arrived.
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-15-0-beta3-available.99718/
BETA 3 has been released. Why didn't Distrowatch show it? Time zones? :)
After all, Distrowatch recently reported on the release of BETA 1. Why did it miss the release of BETA 2 then? :(
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=freebsd
Click to expand...
Announcements are sent to freebsd-stable ML by RE (Release Engineering Team). You can check it via ML archive, subscribing is not necessary unless you want to post there.
 
I've successfully upgraded from 15.0-BETA2 to 15.0-BETA3 in a fully package based OS ('pkgbasified'); I used:
Rich (BB code): 
[0-0] # pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD-base
   [...]
   [ after reboot ]
[0-0] # date -u; uname -apKU; freebsd-version -kru
Sat Oct 25 12:50:05 UTC 2025
FreeBSD q210 15.0-BETA3 FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3 releng/15.0-n280758-0fc5b401bdc7 GENERIC amd64 amd64 1500068 1500068
15.0-BETA3
15.0-BETA3
15.0-BETA3

Note, contrary to pkg-upgrade(8):
Code: 
   -r reponame, --repository reponame
	   Install  packages from only the named repository, irrespec-
	   tive	of the configured "enabled" status from	repo.conf.
you need to set FreeBSD-base to enabled: yes in your pkg .conf file.

Edit: 15.0-BETA2 has freebsd-base(7), as does an up-to-date 15-STABLE.
 
What happens when you do “pkg upgrade” and it applies to every repo you have configured? Does it do the base first, then ports? Is there an order to it?

What if I have multiple repos configured for multiple major versions? Will it try to upgrade all of them?
 
I would not expect FreeBSD project to seriously devote resources for building complete package repos for all the architectures every time there's a new beta release... Just my 2 cents, but if they only built package repos for the -RELEASE-tagged stuff, that would save a lot of headaches, and send a message that if you use anything but -RELEASE, one is really on their own for problem-solving.
 
According to https://wiki.freebsd.org/action/show/pkgbase?action=show&redirect=PkgBase there are three official repos for pkgbase.

base_latest
base_weekly
base_release

But the "latest" and "weekly" are identical for "main" and "stable"

So, my question is, how do i track CURRENT vs STABLE vs BETA vs ALPHA vs RELASE?

I've read that BETA and RELEASE follow the base_relase one, but what about the other two?
And why do "main" and "stable" have the same url in the above mention link?

Thanks
 
Hint:
main (aka Current) now has major version (=ABI) of 16.
stable/15 has major version of 15.
stable/14 has major version of 14.
And stable/13 has major version of 13.

${ABI} part is expanded differently, thus, can be distinguished mutually in repo URL.
 
As a first note: this wiki is stil a work in progress, all packaged based base installs (aka 'pkgbasified') before FreeBSD 15 are considered experimental. Lots of info is the accumulation over years that pkgbase became implemented and could be run as experimental.
victort said:
But the "latest" and "weekly" are identical for "main" and "stable"

So, my question is, how do i track CURRENT vs STABLE vs BETA vs ALPHA vs RELASE?
Click to expand...

I think you are referring to the table rows in Packaging FreeBSD base:

BranchFrequencyURLkmods
maintwice daily – 12:00 and 00:00 UTChttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_latesthttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/kmods_latest
mainweekly – Sunday at 12:00 UTChttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_weeklyn.a.
stable/14twice daily – 12:00 and 00:00 UTChttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_latesthttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/kmods_latest
stable/14weekly – Sunday at 12:00 UTChttps://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_weeklyn.a.

For example the two entries:
main: https://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_latest
stable14: https://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_latest
are encoded the same, however, when ${ABI} expands according to the OS version and architecture they are running on, these will differ between main and stable.

If you are considering tracking main (at the moment tagged with version number 16.x) then, in short, you should have either testing or developer aspirations; probably both. Main, aka -CURRENT, is rather fluid, can easily break and has all its debugging features enabled, think twice if you are inclined to track main; also read the Handbook, and Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions.

I don't have a lot of experience tracking stable but, the following might be helpful. If your main interest is in using & working in a package based base (pkgbasified) environment, I recommend favouring FreeBSD 15 over 14. In FreeBSD 15 pkgbase is fully supported, even though we are still on a pre-release cycle (ALPHA's -> BETA's -> RC's) until the official 15.0-RELEASE. Furthermore, most development is probably being directed at stable/15 and the pre-release cycle versions of FreeBSD 15: see also message # 39.

One substantial advantage of a package based base environment is that you'll be able to track stable/15 by binary updates because it is now package based. Tracking stable in a traditional base environment (that is: not pkgbasified), means you must update by updating from the source code and build it. As all developments in stable/15 and releng/15 are now focussed on the same goal: the official release of FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE, I expect that the lagg of releng/15 versions during the pre-release-cycle (BETAx etc. ) with its 'forerunner' stable/15 will be small; that is: what is in stable/15 will soon appear in 15.0-BETAx or 15.0-RCy. After the official 15.0-RELEASE has been released, this difference will increase as from then on forwards, stable/15 will serve as a preparation for the next release version: 15.1-RELEASE. In practical terms that means that tracking stable/15 or tracking releng/15 will result in a similar experience; where tracking releng/15 will give you most likely the least unexpected problems.
 
So, I'm counting a total of 6 repos in the post above: Main/Latest, Main/Weekly, Main/kmods, Stable/14/Latest, Stable/14/Weekly, and Stable/14/kmods. And each of them has the full build of all 40,000 packages that are present in the Ports Collection. Not symlinks, but actual files, actual packages built for each repo's spec sheet. For an NPO that relies on Open Source and free software, and whose Core Developer team sets up shop on Reddit, that is a feat that is nothing to sneeze at!
 
I've now tried upgrading from 14.3 to 15.0 with every single ALPHA and BETA version, and it always fails somewhere in the middle of extracting the packages.

Subsequent attempts to do anything inside the machine results in the following.

root@dev2:~ # pkg update
ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libcrypto.so.35" not found, required by "pkg"
 
victort said:
I've now tried upgrading from 14.3 to 15.0 with every single ALPHA and BETA version
Click to expand...
Did you first use a fetch-install cycle to move to the most recent patch of 14.3-RELEASE? Most likely: 14.3-RELEASE-p5.
This is necessary according to FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3 Now Available. I've used this path from 14.2-RELEASE (non-pkgbasifies) to 15.0-ALPHA5, then pkgbasified and changed settings of .conf file; this worked for me.

If you had 14.3 as a ZFS on root, you should be able to go back to a Boot Environment of your 14.3-RELEASE.
 
Erichans said:
Did you first use a fetch-install cycle to move to the most recent patch of 14.3-RELEASE? Most likely: 14.3-RELEASE-p5.
This is necessary according to FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3 Now Available. I've used this path from 14.2-RELEASE (non-pkgbasifies) to 15.0-ALPHA5, then pkgbasified and changed settings of .conf file; this worked for me.

If you had 14.3 as a ZFS on root, you should be able to go back to a Boot Environment of your 14.3-RELEASE.
Click to expand...
I did not go to the latest patch. I will try that.

Thanks!
 
Failed again. Updated to 14.3-RELEASE-p5, tried the pkg update to 15.0, and it always fails after extracting zone info.
 
victort said:
Failed again. Updated to 14.3-RELEASE-p5, tried the pkg update to 15.0, and it always fails after extracting zone info.
Click to expand...
It seems that you didn't go the usual route starting from a non-pkgbasified 14.3-R as documented in FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3 Now Available:
Code: 
[...] and then downloading the new release:

	# freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.0-BETA3
[...]
Is there any special reason you did not use freebsd-update(8) and instead used pkg update? I can't see that documented in the referenced link; I'm not saying it is not possible but, I haven't taken that upgrade path from my 14.2-R.

Please post the output of:
pkg -vv | sed -nE -e '/^OSVERSION|^ABI|^BACKUP/ p' -e '/^Repositories:/,$ p'
 
Erichans said:
It seems that you didn't go the usual route starting from a non-pkgbasified 14.3-R as documented in FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3 Now Available:
Code: 
[...] and then downloading the new release:

    # freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.0-BETA3
[...]
Is there any special reason you did not use freebsd-update(8) and instead used pkg update? I can't see that documented in the referenced link; I'm not saying it is not possible but, I haven't taken that upgrade path from my 14.2-R.

Please post the output of:
pkg -vv | sed -nE -e '/^OSVERSION|^ABI|^BACKUP/ p' -e '/^Repositories:/,$ p'
Click to expand...
Oh so you’re saying I should update to 15.0 using freebsd-update?

I must have missed that.

I tried with pkg to upgrade to 15.

Oops…
 
FreeBSD 15.0-BETA4 Now Available
I've just upgraded from 15.0-BETA3 to 15.0-BETA4 using pkg upgrade -r FreeBSD-base.
After the reboot:
Code: 
[0-0] # date -u; uname -apKU; freebsd-version -kru
Sat Nov  1 23:57:10 UTC 2025
FreeBSD q210 15.0-BETA4 FreeBSD 15.0-BETA4
releng/15.0-n280840-f0b1ca546eb4 GENERIC amd64 amd64 1500068 1500068
15.0-BETA4
15.0-BETA4
15.0-BETA4

However, with the previous upgrade to BETA3, I got:

Code: 
[0-0] # date -u; uname -apKU; freebsd-version -kru
Sat Oct 25 12:50:05 UTC 2025
FreeBSD q210 15.0-BETA3 FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3
releng/15.0-n280758-0fc5b401bdc7 GENERIC amd64 amd64 1500068 1500068
15.0-BETA3
15.0-BETA3
15.0-BETA3

I was expecting a version bump to 1500069 with BETA4.

Edit: The answer came quickly, Re: FreeBSD 15.0-BETA4 Now Available:
Code: 
No, the __FreeBSD_version value is essentially a "what features does the
base system have" value -- it exists mainly so that ports code can query
it (e.g. to include patches or enable features based).  Nothing major
changed between BETA3 and BETA4; in fact 15.0-RELEASE will probably have
the same 1500068 value.
 
Erichans said:
I was expecting a version bump to 1500069 with BETA4.
Click to expand...
I don't see any reason to change it.
/usr/include/sys/param.h
Code: 
__FreeBSD_version is bumped every time there's a change in the base system
that's noteworthy. A noteworthy change is any change which changes the
kernel's KBI in -CURRENT, one that changes some detail about the system that
external software (or the ports system) would want to know about, one that
adds a system call, one that adds or deletes a shipped library, a security
fix, or similar change not specifically noted here.

Edit: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/porters-handbook/versions/#versions-15
 
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