From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 26 05:50:47 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2BBBC16A400 for ; Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:50:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@dfwlp.com) Received: from zeus.int.dfwlp.com (zeus.dfwlp.com [208.11.134.127]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ADB9F43D45 for ; Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:50:46 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@dfwlp.com) Received: from europa (europa.int.dfwlp.com [192.168.125.80]) (authenticated bits=0) by zeus.int.dfwlp.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k2Q5oe7X006676; Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:50:40 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from freebsd@dfwlp.com) Message-Id: <200603260550.k2Q5oe7X006676@zeus.int.dfwlp.com> From: "Jonathan Horne" To: "'Jason C. Wells'" , "'freebsd general questions'" Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:51:04 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.5510 In-Reply-To: <442629F5.5050904@highperformance.net> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Thread-Index: AcZQmC5hrsILzK6sQESXGdrCWRLeGQAAIh/g X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.4 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=failed version=3.1.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.1 (2006-03-10) on zeus.int.dfwlp.com Cc: Subject: RE: what is the process for migrating a pre-built kernel to a new machine? 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: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:50:47 -0000 So if when you say "copy the kernel", do you just mean the contents of the /boot/kernel directory, and that's as plain as it is? Or is there more to it? The reason I'm asking, is that I always plan for disaster recovery, and after a build, easily the single longest task for bringing my particular system totally back online, is compiling the kernel (im still running my 5 year old dual p3 800). For time's sake during recovery, I would like to skip at least that process. Can you give me more specifics on exactly what should be moved/copied? Cheers, jonathan -----Original Message----- From: Jason C. Wells [mailto:jcw@highperformance.net] Sent: Saturday, March 25, 2006 11:43 PM To: Jonathan Horne; freebsd general questions Subject: Re: what is the process for migrating a pre-built kernel to a new machine? Jonathan Horne wrote: > What if I want to use a kernel I compiled on one system, on another system? > What is the process to successfully migrate a kernel from one system to > another (or back to the same after a disaster recovery)? Just FTP, NFS, or otherwise copy the kernel to the new system and reboot. Now for the caveats. It is inadvisable to copy a kernel from one version of FreeBSD to another. You'll get mysterious library errors from libraries like libkvm. Copying 6.1 kernels to and from 6.1 systems is OK. Copying 6.1 kernels to 5.4 system is bad. Copying a kernel from last month's build of stable to this months build of stable is probably bad also. I would advise you to install the kernel sources on each machine where you want to build a custom kernel. That or set up one machine to be your "build server" in the fashion described in the handbook. You also have to take care regarding hardware compatibility. If one system is all SCSI and the other is all IDE you are not going to be able to move those kernels around and have properly functioning hard drives. For disaster recovery, keep your kernel config file. I would argue that the config file is more important than the actual kernel binary. Later, Jason C. Wells