Upgrading from 14.3 to 15.0

siealex · Nov 28, 2025

Code:

BE                                Active Mountpoint Space Created
14.3-RELEASE-p5_2025-11-28_162053 -      -          608M  2025-11-28 16:20
default                           NR     /          28.4G 2024-10-17 04:28

Wow...

mer · Nov 28, 2025

Welcome to ZFS snapshots and clones

Very very simplistic, size of snapshots are related to "deltas" (think refcounting). Space is not reclaimed until nothing references the blocks.
Boot Environments are a combination of snapshots and clones, so they consume space. Space is not released until all references to it are released. freebsd-update by default automatically creating new BEs can make one run out of space and the user doesn't understand why. Remembering that freebs-update creates a new BE is the important part.

In general, one can safely (usually) bectl destroy -o all BEs except for the one that has "N/R/NR" on it.

freethread · Nov 28, 2025

mer you specified the -o switch, I never used it. Manpage states that flag "may be specified to destroy the origin as well", what mean? Is it safe to use it and I get more free space?

mer · Nov 28, 2025

freethread said:
mer you specified the -o switch, I never used it. Manpage states that flag "may be specified to destroy the origin as well", what mean? Is it safe to use it and I get more free space?

Snapshots and clones. Technically a Boot Environment is a clone; a clone is a read/write off a snapshot. So, you have a dataset, you create a snapshot, then you create a clone off that snapshot. Specifying "-o" means "deleting the Boot Environment means delete the clone, adding -o means also delete the snapshot".

So my understanding is yes specifying "-o" is safe and will fully reclaim space.
I believe that the default on bectl destroy have changed: at one point it did not automatically do -o but it may have changed so that -o became the default. I can never remember when the change occured so I always specify it.

freethread · Nov 28, 2025

Ok thanks, I will use it from now on.

SirDice · Nov 28, 2025

siealex said:

Code:

root@freebsd:/home/alex # bectl list
BE                                Active Mountpoint Space Created
14.1-RELEASE-p5_2024-12-03_212249 -      -          17.3M 2024-12-03 21:22
14.1-RELEASE-p6_2024-12-03_212829 -      -          1.50M 2024-12-03 21:28
14.1-RELEASE_2024-10-17_014001    -      -          417M  2024-10-17 04:40
14.2-RELEASE-p1_2025-02-23_014349 -      -          1.29G 2025-02-23 01:43
14.2-RELEASE-p2_2025-04-08_034820 -      -          66.4M 2025-04-08 03:48
14.2-RELEASE-p2_2025-04-10_231051 -      -          433M  2025-04-10 23:10
14.2-RELEASE-p3_2025-06-07_152841 -      -          2.64M 2025-06-07 15:28
14.2-RELEASE_2024-12-03_213019    -      -          1.61M 2024-12-03 21:30
14.2-RELEASE_2025-01-30_160358    -      -          176M  2025-01-30 16:03
14.3-RELEASE-p1_2025-08-16_120621 -      -          6.79G 2025-08-16 12:06
14.3-RELEASE-p2_2025-09-21_190424 -      -          323M  2025-09-21 19:04
14.3-RELEASE-p3_2025-10-02_121303 -      -          244M  2025-10-02 12:13
14.3-RELEASE-p4_2025-10-22_202437 -      -          1.64G 2025-10-22 20:24
14.3-RELEASE-p5_2025-11-28_162053 -      -          287M  2025-11-28 16:20
14.3-RELEASE_2025-06-07_153037    -      -          2.19M 2025-06-07 15:30
14.3-RELEASE_2025-07-04_040653    -      -          7.73G 2025-07-04 04:06
250122-000444                     -      -          176M  2025-01-22 00:04
default                           NR     /          91.6G 2024-10-17 04:28

Yeah, this can happen if you have been diligently updating and upgrading with freebsd-update(8) a lot. Kudos for keeping up! You've done so quite nicely.

One really quick way to clean up this mess; bectl list -H | cut -f1 -w | grep RELEASE | xargs -n1 bectl destroy
Just make sure default is still set to NR before you do.

siealex · Nov 29, 2025

fredat · Dec 10, 2025

I run FreeBSD aarch64 as VM in VMware Fusion on an M1 MacMini - installed desktop Mate

Upgrade from 14.x to 15 works well

Code:

$ freebsd-version -kru
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE

Code:

$ freebsd-version -kru
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE

...

# fastfetch
```                        `        xxxadmin@vagabund2000
  ` `.....---.......--.```   -/     ----------------------
  +o   .--`         /y:`      +.    Host: VMware20,1 (1)
   yo`:.            :o      `+-     Kernel: FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE
    y/               -/`   -o/      Uptime: 6 mins
   .-                  ::/sy+:.     Packages: 575 (pkg)
   /                     `--  /     Shell: su
  `:                          :`    Display (default): 1920x1200
  `:                          :`    DE: Mate 1.28.2
   /                          /     WM: Marco (X11)
   .-                        -.     WM Theme: Menta
    --                      -.      Theme: Menta [GTK2/3/4]
     `:`                  `:`       Icons: menta [GTK2/3/4]
       .--             `--.         Font: Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
          .---.....----.            Terminal: mate-terminal 1.28.1
                                    Terminal Font: Monospace (10pt)
                                    CPU: Apple Unknown r0p0 (midr: 610f0000) (2)
                                    GPU: VMware SVGA II Adapter (Fusion)
                                    Memory: 811.68 MiB / 3.97 GiB (20%)
                                    Swap: 0 B / 3.00 GiB (0%)
                                    Disk (/): 10.69 GiB / 54.96 GiB (19%) - ufs
                                    Local IP (em0): 172.16.8.143/24
                                    Locale: de_DE.ISO8859-1

cavokz · Friday at 5:39 PM

fredat said:

I run FreeBSD aarch64 as VM in VMware Fusion on an M1 MacMini - installed desktop Mate

Upgrade from 14.x to 15 works well

Code:

$ freebsd-version -kru
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE

Code:

$ freebsd-version -kru
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE
15.0-RELEASE

...

# fastfetch
```                        `        xxxadmin@vagabund2000
  ` `.....---.......--.```   -/     ----------------------
  +o   .--`         /y:`      +.    Host: VMware20,1 (1)
   yo`:.            :o      `+-     Kernel: FreeBSD 15.0-RELEASE
    y/               -/`   -o/      Uptime: 6 mins
   .-                  ::/sy+:.     Packages: 575 (pkg)
   /                     `--  /     Shell: su
  `:                          :`    Display (default): 1920x1200
  `:                          :`    DE: Mate 1.28.2
   /                          /     WM: Marco (X11)
   .-                        -.     WM Theme: Menta
    --                      -.      Theme: Menta [GTK2/3/4]
     `:`                  `:`       Icons: menta [GTK2/3/4]
       .--             `--.         Font: Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
          .---.....----.            Terminal: mate-terminal 1.28.1
                                    Terminal Font: Monospace (10pt)
                                    CPU: Apple Unknown r0p0 (midr: 610f0000) (2)
                                    GPU: VMware SVGA II Adapter (Fusion)
                                    Memory: 811.68 MiB / 3.97 GiB (20%)
                                    Swap: 0 B / 3.00 GiB (0%)
                                    Disk (/): 10.69 GiB / 54.96 GiB (19%) - ufs
                                    Local IP (em0): 172.16.8.143/24
                                    Locale: de_DE.ISO8859-1

OT: I'm also on VMware Fusion on arm64, how did you get X11 up and running? Isn't xf86-video-vmware an x86-only thing?

cavokz · Monday at 12:38 PM

cavokz said:
OT: I'm also on VMware Fusion on arm64, how did you get X11 up and running? Isn't xf86-video-vmware an x86-only thing?

Never mind, I discovered desktop-installer.

Upgrading from 14.3 to 15.0

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