upgrading freebsd 7.2Release to 8.0Release using sysinstall

A

alex_ritm83

Hello.
During the upgrade process there was a few messages:
Code: 
Unable to resurrect your old /etc/mail !
Unable to resurrect your old /etc/pwd.db !
Unable to resurrect your old /etc/services !
Unable to resurrect your old /etc/spwd.db !
Unable to resurrect your old /etc/ssh !
Ater reboot I couldn't log in to the system.
What caused the problem and how can I fix it?
Thanks.

PS: my FreeBSD is in VMware Workstation7
 
couldn't find anything about it in the handbook.
I have a book "FreeBSD: the defenitive guide" written by M. Lucas.
It tells me I can upgrade from one release to another using sysinstall. There is a step-by-step guide in it.

Could you please tell me the reason I cannot use sysinstall?

Thanks for reply.
 
oh, sorry, I just checked sysinstall.
Yes, apparently you can upgrade with sysinstall, but I've never done that [in fact I haven't been using sysinstall for long time]

Still in handbook [link that I gave], there is info how to update your system, Read it [The only thin it requires is internet connection, and running FreeBSD system]
 
alex_ritm83 said:
Could you please tell me the reason I cannot use sysinstall?
Click to expand...
Because you shouldn't use sysinstall for anything else but the initial install. You're quite likely to nuke your entire install, as you already found out.

To put it simply, don't use it, at all. Learn the tools, read the handbook. It's quite simple to upgrade and there's absolutely no need to use sysinstall.
 
Is it possible to make freebsd-update from FreeBSD 8 installation DVD, not from internet?
If it is, how can I make it?
 
I wouldn't normally use sysinstall (I actually don't, even for first-time setups), but I can tell you, you *can* upgrade from DVD or disc1. And it *usually* works. It will keep backups of your configuration and restore it at the end, but I suggest you keep your own backups just in case...

If you don't want to do that and have no Internet connection, you probably have no choice but to install from scratch.
But you don't necessarily have to do the slicing, partitioning and labeling again if you follow this method and skip the fdisk and bsdlabel parts. It's all about mounting partitions on the right mount points, doing newfs, extracting the base system and GENERIC kernel, and restoring your configuration files.
 
I do not use GENERIC kernel, I compiled my own one from GENERIC!
So I cannot use sysinstall and freebsd-upgrade for upgrades.
I can only upgrade from sources, am I right?:stud
 
alex_ritm83 said:
I do not use GENERIC kernel, I compiled my own one from GENERIC!
So I cannot use sysinstall and freebsd-upgrade for upgrades.
I can only upgrade from sources, am I right?:stud
Click to expand...

Yes. Or you can temporarily switch to GENERIC, do the update, then compile a new custom kernel.
 
GENERIC kernel is lost :(
I compiled new kernel twice, so /boot/kernel.old directory was rewritten. I have sources of GENERIC installed. I'll try to compile a new GENERIC kernel and switch on it.
 
Don't! Just extract it from disc1 or the DVD: # ./install.sh GENERIC in the kernel (or is it kernels) directory. It only takes a few seconds/minutes depending on your machine specs.
 
Have installed GENERIC from Freebsd 8 DVD and switched to it
upgrade with sysinstall was successfull :)
thanks a lot!

Can I upgrade a production server this way? Is it proper and safe enougth?
 
Well, did it not work on your virtual machine?

The process described here is more or less what sysinstall does when it's installing FreeBSD. The only disadvantage will be higher downtime compared to doing the upgrade over the Internet. But when you master the method, you'll be able to do the entire upgrade safely and rapidly.
 
SirDice said:
Because you shouldn't use sysinstall for anything else but the initial install. You're quite likely to nuke your entire install, as you already found out.

To put it simply, don't use it, at all. Learn the tools, read the handbook. It's quite simple to upgrade and there's absolutely no need to use sysinstall.
Click to expand...

I've been pondering axing support for upgrading from sysinstall. Not only is it a less than optimal way to upgrade, but from what I can recall, there's a bug that I haven't yet fixed that involves existing base bind configurations being overwritten. It's the only problem I've heard of so far, but if you know of more, please let me know or file a bug. The more bugs that get reported, the more likely I am to remove the support altogether and have the upgrade menu display a window that says "Please use freebsd-update".
 
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