From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jul 25 16:12:28 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from w2xo.pgh.pa.us (18.gibs5.xdsl.nauticom.net [209.195.184.19]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA27C37B401 for ; Wed, 25 Jul 2001 16:12:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from durham@w2xo.pgh.pa.us) Received: from jimslaptop.int (jimslaptop.int [192.168.5.8]) by w2xo.pgh.pa.us (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f6PNJim44781; Wed, 25 Jul 2001 19:19:44 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from durham@w2xo.pgh.pa.us) Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 19:12:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Jim Durham X-X-Sender: To: Kevin Golding Cc: Subject: Re: make world from across the globe In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Kevin Golding wrote: > I'm planning an upgrade from 4.2 -> 4.3 release but there's a couple of > things I'm a bit uncertain about. > > The problem is that I have no direct access to the machine in question, > I usually just connect with ssh and for day to day stuff that serves me > just fine, but from the stuff I've read about upgrades I should drop > down to single user mode for the final stages like make installworld. > > Now to my knowledge this makes remote logins a problem. > > I've thought about setting /etc/ttys to insecure and then just dropping > down but I'm not exactly confident that'll work. > > I've also read on.demon.co.uk/FreeBSD/make-world/make-world.html > which looks like I > might be able to avoid dropping to single user if I'm *very* careful, > prepared and desperate. > > I'm therefore hoping someone can point me in the direction of either i) > a way to login across the Internet or ii) a way to do a source upgrade > without dropping to single user > What I do is make a boot.config file in / containing just "-h" (no quotes). This causes the system to boot on the 1st serial port as the console. I have an old Portmaster in the rack. I set up an unused port to allow telnet to it and run a null modem cable to the serial port. Works like a champ. You can do upgrades in single-user. That's not really necessary, but the big win is that you can fool with the firewall and routing without locking yourself out! (Did you ever try to fix ipfw by coaxing a non-unix person on the other end of a 3000 mile phone line? Naw....not a pretty sight... If you don't have a Portmaster, you can use a Shiva box, or an Equinox MDS-10 or whatever.. or, any old 486 with an ethernet card. Of course, you need at least 2 IPs! (Well... there are ways... but..) Jim Durham To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message