Solved Upgrade 12.1 -> 12.2 failure

[balanga]

I have just run freebsd-update -r 12.2 upgrade and all appeared to go well, but on reboot the system started OK but the screen went blank at the point the video mode changes.

Any ideas about what to look for?

Can I revert to 12.1?

 

[eternal_noob]

Did you run freebsd-update install afterwards? Twice, first one time, then reboot, then another time.

See "24.2.3. Performing Major and Minor Version Upgrades" here: https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html

 

[zirias@]

the screen went blank at the point the video mode changes.

When the kernel starts booting or when a drm driver is loaded?

 

[balanga]

How can I tell? The thing wizzes past to quickly. Would I be able to tell using dmesg after rebooting and going into single-user mode?

 

[zirias@]

So, if you boot to single-user mode, the screen stays on? Then it's the drm driver. And sure you should find its messages in dmesg, and also in /var/log/messages.

 

[YYY__]

Did you run freebsd-update install afterwards? Twice, first one time, then reboot, then another time.

See "24.2.3. Performing Major and Minor Version Upgrades" here: https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html

Is it necessary for a custom kernel or always? The handbook is very subtle at this point. Just for acquiring knowledge.

 

[eternal_noob]

Is it necessary for a custom kernel or always?

It is always necessary. If you use a custom kernel you additionally need to issue nextboot -k GENERIC after the first freebsd-update install.

 

[balanga]

I have just run freebsd-update -r 12.2 upgrade and all appeared to go well, but on reboot the system started OK but the screen went blank at the point the video mode changes.

Looks like I was a bit too quick to diagnose failure..... After a reboot, I happened to leave the system for over ten minutes and the display of the booting process resumed, but something must be wrong for it to take so long..... It was very quick before the upgrade.

 

[YYY__]

Did you read the release notes and errata? Maybe it'll help.

[2020-11-11] Due to slight changes to the ABI and KBI between FreeBSD 12.1 and FreeBSD 12.2, it is important to note that certain third-party kernel modules may need to be rebuilt locally, until FreeBSD 12.1 reaches end of life.
Of note, this includes, but is not limited to, graphics/*-kmod, net/*-kmod, and possibly others that are too extensive to list.

 

[balanga]

After taking out this line from /etc/rc.conf:-

kld_list='i915kms'

I was able to boot up quickly, so it looks like /boot/kernel/i915kms.ko was causing the problem. After running:-

pkg install drm-kmod

and changing /etc/rc.conf to

kld_list='/boot/modules/i915kms.ko'

things are working normally again.

 

[SirDice]

Did you read the release notes and errata? Maybe it'll help.

This was because the packages were built for 12.1 and these caused problems on 12.2. But 12.1 has since gone EoL and packages are now being built for 12.2, so this warning can be ignored.