From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 15 01:45:02 2012 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 15F59106566B for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:45:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@herveybayaustralia.com.au) Received: from mail.unitedinsong.com.au (mail.unitedinsong.com.au [150.101.178.33]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B3BA78FC1A for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:45:01 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.unitedinsong.com.au (bell.herveybayaustralia.com.au [192.168.0.40]) by mail.unitedinsong.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADA9B5C2E for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:58:26 +1000 (EST) Received: from laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au (laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au [192.168.0.177]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.unitedinsong.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 29F1B5C2D for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:58:26 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <4F3B0D00.4050605@herveybayaustralia.com.au> Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:40:16 +1000 From: Da Rock User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20111109 Thunderbird/7.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20120215000838.GA26583@thought.org> In-Reply-To: <20120215000838.GA26583@thought.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: fixit disc for 7.3 #1? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:45:02 -0000 On 02/15/12 10:08, Gary Kline wrote: > guys, > > is there still a way of fixing something i did to my existing > installation? it does nothing but continually cycle e and try to > reboot into the old release i had from feb 2011. i thought editing > out /etc/fstab would do it. but nope, it throws me into the lowest > level manual config and then hangs. i cannot even install release 9.0 > which is the only other path. either some stable distro of debian, > or getting past release8 and going to 9. > > first, tho, i need to get rid of this [[messed up]] 7.3. > > let me share a story from when i was visiting a favorite cousin who > put up about half of NASA's huge antennas. long retired, he lives > out where not even god could find him. he wanted to see proof of my > beloved freebsd. so, using a new set of discs that i bought, i > started the installation. { FWIW, --this was in july, 2000. } I > happened to mention that freebsd had trouble configuring the > printers. or that that could get hairy. he stopped what he was > doing and asked me to get back to his windows toys and games. i had > a floppy w ith the mystery file "MBR" that removed that single file. > > my hunch is that since i never mess with anything but freebsd, i > left it configure itself by default and that the same thing that > stalled me for ten minutes back in 2000, might be what's stopping > me from installing anything over my 7.3 in 2012. > > any wizards how how to fix this? Are you sure you can't backup your important files and start again? You might have a good deal of trouble jumping by 2 major releases at the best of times. Also, 9.0 is significantly different in many ways to 7.x in dir structure _and_ filesystems, to just mention a few. I new (clean) install would be _highly_ recommended ;)