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Date:      Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:19:36 -0800
From:      Colin Percival <cperciva@freebsd.org>
To:        Andy Hilker <ah@crypta.net>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: freebsd-update ignores /boot/kernel/kernel sometimes!?
Message-ID:  <45E74368.4010603@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <20070301105023.GA62748@mail.crypta.net>
References:  <20070228221612.GA14358@mail.crypta.net> <20070301105023.GA62748@mail.crypta.net>

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Andy Hilker wrote:
>> Somehow freebsd-update find /boot/kernel/kernel on some servers and
>> patches it and on others not.
> 
> Additional info:
> it seems that all machines where it does not work, have an SMP-GENERIC
> (i386) installed.

There's a bug in how FreeBSD Update handles /boot/kernel.  Basically, it's
supposed to figure out if you're running a GENERIC or SMP kernel, and get
the appropriate updates based on that; but I incorrectly assumed that the
SMP kernel would identify itself as "SMP".  Instead, the i386 SMP kernel
identifies itself as "SMP-GENERIC", while the amd64 SMP kernel identifies
itself as "GENERIC", with the result that

(a) On FreeBSD 6.2 i386 systems running an SMP kernel from /boot/kernel,
the kernel will not be updated, and
(b) On FreeBSD 6.2 amd64 systems running an SMP kernel from /boot/kernel,
the kernel will be replaced with a GENERIC (non-SMP) kernel.

I'm working on a patch for this and will be talking to re@ about having an
Errata Notice sent out about this.

Colin Percival



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