Upgrading from 9.1-RELEASE-p22 to something newer?

[stephanelefou]

Is it possible to upgrade from 9.1 to something newer? This is a home file server, Pentium4 i386, 1GB ram, files already backed-up, built in 2014, nothing fancy. And yes, it passed its EOL date. Thanks.

 

[_martin]

Well I have a test rig, P3 Celeron 500MHz 192MB ram on 8GB card on FreeBSD 12.3. I can for sure go up to 13.2, I just didn't care enough to copy it over to the SD card.
So yes, you can.

 

[ralphbsz]

Is it worth upgrading? I wouldn't worry about the CPU, RAM and networking. But that is a 32-bit CPU, and starting with FreeBSD 14, 32-bit Intel will be a second-class citizen. Which doesn't mean instant death, but it means it is no longer a good long-term option. A bigger concern is that the disks are not getting younger, they are now 7-8 years old. They will get unreliable, perhaps not this week or year, but sooner or later. Also, replacing the whole system with a modern one of equivalent CPU power and storage capacity would probably lower electricity consumption.

With all that, it might be more efficient to replace the hardware. At that point, it might be easier to just install a new system with a current FreeBSD, and then move applications and data over.

But I'm sure you can upgrade. You can definitely do it in steps, and go 9 -> 10 -> ... -> 13.2. Running this many upgrades in a row might take a while (I would budget a weekend for it).

 

[ayleid96]

I upgraded successfully from 9.3-RELEASE to 12.4-RELEASE without any problems. However you should be careful about drivers. One laptop i have is pretty much ancient, it has very old integrated intel gpu, drivers from 12.4-RELEASE for example has gpu driver from 2008 i think, where 13.2-RELEASE has more recent one, performance difference between those two on that GPU is HUGE. I advice you to upgrade to 12.4-RELEASE since it is oldest supported version of fbsd.

 

[smithi]

But I'm sure you can upgrade. You can definitely do it in steps, and go 9 -> 10 -> ... -> 13.2. Running this many upgrades in a row might take a while (I would budget a weekend for it).

I upgraded successfully from 9.3-RELEASE to 12.4-RELEASE without any problems.

Did you do that in steps like ralphbsd above, or at once?

I also have a 9.3 system, a laptop, so am curious also about whether one can skip 10 and 11 getting to 12.4

I advice you to upgrade to 12.4-RELEASE since it is oldest supported version of fbsd.

12.4 is supported till the end of 2023, so that's likely the safest course for now if keeping that hardware.

 

[SirDice]

Is it possible to upgrade from 9.1 to something newer?

Technically possible, yes. Such a big jump is tricky though, and it might be simpler if you just reinstalled with a recent version. If this is an older installation it may have the old partition scheme and you might run out of space in some of them.

But that is a 32-bit CPU, and starting with FreeBSD 14, 32-bit Intel will be a second-class citizen.

It was already 'demoted' to Tier 2 with 13.0.

[FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD/i386 demoted to Tier 2 for FreeBSD 13.x

 

[ayleid96]

Did you do that in steps like ralphbsd above, or at once?

I also have a 9.3 system, a laptop, so am curious also about whether one can skip 10 and 11 getting to 12.4



12.4 is supported till the end of 2023, so that's likely the safest course for now if keeping that hardware.

I upgraded directly to 12.4, took a long time but it worked.