From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 16 21:44:51 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 D8BE11065675 for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:44:51 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from merlyn@stonehenge.com) Received: from mail.mroute.net (lax-gw09.mailroute.net [199.89.0.109]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BB8458FC21 for ; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:44:50 +0000 (UTC) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lax-gw09.mroute.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6ACB913851A; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:44:50 +0000 (GMT) X-Virus-Scanned: by MailRoute Received: from red.stonehenge.com (red.stonehenge.com [208.79.95.2]) by lax-gw09.mroute.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BA1613850C; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:44:49 +0000 (GMT) Received: by red.stonehenge.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 4B9BA3411; Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:44:49 -0700 (PDT) From: merlyn@stonehenge.com (Randal L. Schwartz) To: DStaal@usa.net References: <21D3DE2D-2C1E-4C7B-860E-C637C746150A@forsythia.net> <86lj0j9cwd.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <86hbb6aply.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <78E237A573166F9C62551A78@mac-pro.magehandbook.com> <864o76abzp.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> <86hbb2x68l.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> x-mayan-date: Long count = 12.19.18.3.14; tzolkin = 8 Ix; haab = 7 Cumku Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:44:49 -0700 In-Reply-To: (Daniel Staal's message of "Wed, 16 Mar 2011 16:14:36 -0400") Message-ID: <86ipviviy6.fsf@red.stonehenge.com> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.2 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Upgrading FreeBSd when using a zfs-only installation? 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, 16 Mar 2011 21:44:51 -0000 >>>>> "Daniel" == Daniel Staal writes: Daniel> On Wed, March 16, 2011 2:36 pm, Randal L. Schwartz wrote: >> Randal> SOMEONE here knows. Please help. >> >> So, nobody knows? >> >> Most of the other answers were about a source-code upgrade, not a binary >> upgrade. Daniel> I thought Matthew Seamans' answer sounded pretty definitive: >> A system update via freebsd-update or otherwise won't touch whatever >> bootblocks you have installed. So if you have already installed >> gptzfsboot and your system already boots ZFS v12 then it will continue to >> boot ZFS v12 without your touching anything to do with boot blocks. But this was absolutely *not* the case with 8.0 to 8.1. I had tried it naively in a VM, and thank goodness, because the VM failed to boot. Then I googled, and found http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=94557&postcount=19 which when I followed, and it worked fine. Thus, when I did my "live" 8.0 to 8.1 upgrades, I followed that extra "gpart bootcode" step, and everything worked fine. Therefore, Matthew Seaman can't be trusted with his answer. He apparently did not boot a ZFS-on-root disk with a freebsd-update from 8.0 to 8.1, or he would not have said what he did. The question I have is, does anyone know *definitively* if the same thing that broke 8.0 to 8.1 will also likely occur in 8.1 to 8.2, or does the bootloader in 8.2 now contain what /boot/gptzfsboot contained in 8.1? As in, does FreeBSD 8.2 now support *native* ZFS booting, or will it forever be a kluge? -- Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095 Smalltalk/Perl/Unix consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc. See http://methodsandmessages.posterous.com/ for Smalltalk discussion