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From: Ralph Ellis <ralphellis@netscape.ca>
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Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:20:40 -0700
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Subject: Re: Upgrading BSD
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On Wednesday 30 August 2006 1:02 pm, Amita Bargal (ambargal) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a machine which has BSD 4.8 on it. Is it possible to upgrade to
> version 6.0 without affecting/deleting/losing any files currently
> present on the machine.
>
> $ uname -a
> FreeBSD tcp-01-pc7 4.8-RELEASE FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE #1: Fri Jul 18
> 10:43:30 PDT 2003
> devtest@tcp-pc3:/usr/devtest/kame/freebsd4/sys/compile/tcp-pc3  i386
> $
>
>
> Thanks,
> Amita
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Usually you have to upgrade from major release to major release i.e. 4.8  to 
5.5, 5.5 to 6.1 etc. However, if you are only protecting data files then copy 
them to a cd, dvd or separate disk drive and do a clean install of 6.1. If 
you want to protect configuration files then you may have to upgrade step by 
step. Upgrading using the make buildworld, make build kernel, make install 
kernel, reboot, make install world, mergemaster process is time comsuming. If 
you only need to protect data, then copy it off and do a clean install.
Are you using this for a server or a desktop?
Ralph Ellis