Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 22:54:03 -0400 From: "Andrew C. Hornback" <achornback@worldnet.att.net> To: "Annelise Anderson" <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> Cc: "David Kirchner" <davidk@accretivetg.com>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Where is sysinstall? Message-ID: <00c201c15780$253efd40$6600000a@columbia> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10110171246150.42630-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Annelise
> Anderson
> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 4:07 PM
> To: Andrew C. Hornback
> Cc: David Kirchner; freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
> Subject: RE: Where is sysinstall?
> > >
> > > I can't speak for them authoritatively, but I'm betting that the CD
> > > authors expected you to either a) be able to boot off the CD
> >
> > There are those of us out here that don't have that option.
> >
> > > b) be able
> > > to read the CD and generate a boot floppy and use it to boot
> >
> > Again, there are those of us that don't have this option.
> I find it a
> > waste of hardware to keep a perfectly good floppy drive in a server,
> > especially when it never gets used in normal operations.
>
> You could just install one temporarily for the purpose, though, couldn't
> you? It's a $20 item.
True... but, to install it, I'd have to open the case, etc. I realize that
upgrading FreeBSD from one version to the other isn't a painless art, but I
shouldn't have to reconfigure my hardware to accomplish it... ('sides, in
order to install a floppy in this machine, I'd have to rip out the RAID cage
and the power supply to get to the motherboard just to hook up the data
cable...)
> > > c) be able to mount the CD onto your current system and run sysinstall
> > from
> > > that.
> >
> > Again... the question is, where is sysinstall on the CDs?
>
> It is (I think) compiled into the boot.flp 2.88 image, which (either
> as it appears in the floppies directory on CD 1 or somewhere else)
> is what the CD boots from if the machine can boot from a CD.
Okay... and how would one get at that?
Update, nevermind... read below.
> > And once again, I'll quote from INSTALL.TXT on the
> 4.4-RELEASE kit's CD #1:
> >
> > "Important: These notes assume that you are using the version of
> > sysinstall(8) supplied with the version of FreeBSD to which you intend
> > to upgrade. Using a mismatched version of sysinstall(8) is almost
> > guaranteed to cause problems and has been known to leave systems in an
> > unusable state. The most commonly made mistake in this regard is the use
> > of an old copy of sysinstall(8) from an existing installation to upgrade
> > to a newer version of FreeBSD. This is not recommended."
> >
> > Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, this says that in
> order to upgrade to
> > 4.4, you have to use the version of sysinstall that shipped
> with 4.4. Now,
> > am I reading this incorrectly?
>
> No, that's what they want you to do.
Okay, so why's it like pulling teeth to get to that file? You'd think it
would be easier to do if that's how the recommended upgrade path is written.
> However, you could possibly upgrade the sources in
> /usr/src/release/sysinstall and build a 4.4 sysinstall. You could
> boot that. You could install using that running version of sysinstall.
What are the differences between sysinstall in 4.3-R and 4.4-R? If there's
no difference, I don't see why I couldn't use the version from 4.3-R.
> It will install "over" your running system. This is an undocumented
> and obviously risky thing to do. It seems to install over the running
> system even if you tell it to install on another partition.
>
> It should be, in its effects, not that different from doing a binary
> upgrade--which you could in fact choose from the sysinstall menu.
> Then your entire /etc directory won't be overwritten.
>
> Now what makes this very different from booting 4.4 boot floppies
> or a 4.4 CDROM is that the kernel you're running is, of course, your
> 4.3 kernel, not a 4.4 kernel. (If you want a file system laid out
> for optimum use of dirprefs, you need a kernel more recent than
> 4.4-RELEASE.) Actually a 4.3 kernel will probably be all right but
> this is the sort of thing on which there are no guarantees.
Update: I did the sysinstall Upgrade option over the running system, and
things seem to work fine, except that it killed the kernel in the process
(had to specify kernel.GENERIC at the boot loader) and that telnet died (I
assume this was part of the telnetd fix, but I haven't researched it).
Aside from that, things look fine (if not a bit faster than 4.3).
--- Andy
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