From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 23 04:48:47 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E1C2106564A for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:48:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from sola.nimnet.asn.au (paqi.nimnet.asn.au [115.70.110.159]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E327A8FC08 for ; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:48:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sola.nimnet.asn.au (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id pAN4mhLR043641; Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:48:44 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:48:43 +1100 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: William Bulley In-Reply-To: <20111122164045.GA25322@itcom245.staff.itd.umich.edu> Message-ID: <20111123150244.W72022@sola.nimnet.asn.au> References: <20111122164045.GA25322@itcom245.staff.itd.umich.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Edward Martinez Subject: Re: where to ask about problems with bsdinstall in 9.0RC2? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2011 04:48:47 -0000 On Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:40:45 -0500, William Bulley wrote: > According to Ian Smith on Sat, 11/19/11 at 13:29: > > > > Unfortunately that concentrates on creating a GPT layout, encouraging a > > Linux-like single (plus a boot) partition - forget using dump/restore - > > and says nothing much about installing over an existing setup with MBR > > partitioning and multiple slices, a not uncommon setup on many existing > > laptops .. eg here I want to install over a previous 7.2-RELEASE 60GB > > slice partitioned as I want it - 1GB /, 4GB /var, 16GB /usr and ~37GB > > /home. Further, I want to preserve /home as is, despite having backups. > > > > sysinstall's partitioning is more sophisticated; you get to specifically > > toggle on or off newfs'ing each partition, as well as specifying newfs > > options if you want. So it's clear whether you'll be newfs'ing / and > > which other partitions, and which you'll be leaving alone, eg /home. > > > > On BETA1 I recorded "Extract Error while extracting base.txz: can't set > > user=0/group=0 for /var/empty Can't update time for /var/empty .." which > > someone/s else also reported, which turned out to be misleading .. the > > basic problem is that the filesystem isn't empty, ie as after newfs. > > I hate to be a pest about this, but bsdinstall just isn't working for me. > I grabbed the 9.0RC2 bootonly ISO for i386 and tried again to load this > onto this Dell laptop. This time the *.txz files had to be gotten over > the network which took longer that with the DVD1 ISO. :-( > > The files were fetched, and checked/verified, then the actual installation > (extraction) began. Unfortunately, I got the same error pop-up message. > This time I have the exact text of that error message: > > "Error while extracting base.txz: Can't > set user=0/group=0 for var/emptyCan't > update time for var/empty" > > Note the missing space or CR before the second "Can't" > > What confused me at first was the missing slash ("/") character before the > two "var" pathnames. But I now understand that is because I am updating > (not installing) from a previously working (was 8.2-STABLE in this case) > system where the four partitions (root, swap, /var, and /usr) are present > and full of FreeBSD files, etc. Sorry William, this arrived not long after I crashed, 18-hour odd time difference .. I've since seen Frank Shute advise how to csup from 8.2-S to RELENG_9_0 and in your case that's likely the easiest way to go. As you see, you got exactly the same error I got with BETA1, and for the same reason - bsdinstall isn't running newfs on your existing partitions before trying to extract the distribution. I thought that was going to be fixed before release, but clearly not yet. It really needs the newfs toggle option of sysinstall/sade before it'll be useful as sysinstall. You'd have to boot your DVD1, go into Live CD (formerly Fixit) mode and run newfs manually - if running sysinstall from there doesn't work? I recall your 8.2 system was on slice 1, so likely: # newfs /dev/ad0s1a # / # newfs /dev/ad0s1e; newfs /dev/ad0s1f # /usr, /var Then probably have to reboot DVD1 - I don't know if you can get back into the installer from fixit mode? - then the install should work, but of course you've by then lost your 8.2 system entirely. > If this is a "feature" of bsdinstall, then it should be mentioned in the > documentation somewhere. I used the "Manual" configuration method where > I was asked to name the mount points for root, /var and /usr. My question > is this: "if bsdinstall can't handle installing over top of an already > existing system on disk, then why ask the user for mount points on those > already existing partitions?" This seems weird to me. The docs are very much a work in progress. Even sysinstall requires you to at least enter the mountpoints for your existing partitions (within a slice); they're needed for install and of course to build /etc/fstab. In my case, wanting to preserve /home, seems I'll have to NOT supply a mountpoint for that partition in order for it to be left alone, and then add it into fstab afterwards, probably having to merge any newly created user there from /usr/home, revert the symlink etc. Messy. > So now I am back to square one. I want to load 9.0RC2 onto this laptop > for reasons that aren't relevant to this thread, yet I am unable to do > so because as of 9.0 sysinstall has been replaced by bsdinstall. Did you try running sysinstall (or sade), just to do the slicing + partitioning / newfs'ing from Live CD mode, only on DVD1 I guess? > For the record, how do I upgrade to 9.0RC2 (or any 9.0 variant) from a > system already running 8.2-STABLE? Had this attempt been using the > sysinstall method, I would have long since been up and running FreeBSD > 9.x on this laptop. Please advise. Thanks in advance. In your case I think a source upgrade and building is probably the way to go. In my case, my 8.2 is on another slice (s4), but I want 9.0 on s2, over an existing 7.4-RELEASE, because that slice has enough space for a decent ongoing 9.x system, and because I'd hoped to contribute to debugging bsdinstall - but then I moved and had no net access for nearly a month. Still, I'm persisting with that plan and I'll keep hassling until this regression in functionality is fixed, for 9.1 now I guess. cheers, Ian