From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Nov 10 11:17:31 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D21E716A41F; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from Jan.Grant@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from diri.bris.ac.uk (diri.bris.ac.uk [137.222.10.112]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 73D8A43D6B; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from Jan.Grant@bristol.ac.uk) Received: from mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk ([137.222.16.62]) by diri.bris.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.54) id 1EaAQi-0005yI-U1; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:22 +0000 Received: from cmjg (helo=localhost) by mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk with local-esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1EaAQb-0003d7-K4; Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:14 +0000 Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:13 +0000 (GMT) From: Jan Grant X-X-Sender: cmjg@mail.ilrt.bris.ac.uk To: Robert Watson In-Reply-To: <20051110090912.C33260@fledge.watson.org> Message-ID: References: <4372256F.2020800@kernel32.de> <20051110090912.C33260@fledge.watson.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: Jan Grant X-Spam-Score: -1.4 X-Spam-Level: - Cc: stable@freebsd.org, Claus Guttesen , Marian Hettwer , Pete French , Ronald Klop Subject: Re: upgrading 5.4 -> 6.0 without reinstalling. safe ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:17:31 -0000 On Thu, 10 Nov 2005, Robert Watson wrote: > > On Wed, 9 Nov 2005, Ronald Klop wrote: > > > > > PS.: Just did an upgrade remote from 5.4-RELEASE to 6.0-RELEASE without > > > any problems. Steps taken as described above ;) > > > > How do you reboot into single-usermode from remote? (Rebooting isn't really > > the problem, working in single-usermode is.) > > Typically, using a serial console which allows you to specify the boot flags > and access the console remotely. A serial console is an invaluable tool for > remote administration in the event of upgrades, hardware failures, etc, > especially if your box supports remote bios and raid management using a serial > port but not a command line tool. > > It is possible to do upgrades without single user mode, but it comes with > risks -- if you do this, you want to make sure that you've shut down any > important services, and blocked logins by users. Otherwise applications may > keel over as shared objects are replaced (generally, pluggable ones), > configuration files change, programs start and stop working for windows as > they are replaced, etc. This is not a recommended approach, and I don't > promise it will work, but I've done remote upgrades on multiuser but quiesced > systems many, many times without problems. FWIW I've just done a successful remote source-based upgrade from 5.4 to 6.0 (I'm brave) with no problems. I use a second root and /usr to be able to run mergemaster, etc, on a spare copy whilst preserving the "live" system, then nextboot to boot the second drive. Providing you remember to rebuild or disable any 5.x-era kernel modules from ports (nvidia, rtc, etc) prior to the reboot it should work fine and offers a simple backout in the case of disaster. On a multiuser system this obviously works better if you arrange your setup to work in a "read-only root/usr" setup, so late-in-the-day changes by users to stuff under /etc aren't lost. -- jan grant, ILRT, University of Bristol. http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ Tel +44 (0)117 3317661 http://ioctl.org/jan/ Goedel would be proud - I'm both inconsistent _and_ incomplete.