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Date:      Tue, 12 Feb 2008 09:05:35 -0800
From:      Gavin Spomer <spomerg@cwu.EDU>
To:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Rebuilding World Problems
Message-ID:  <47B161630200009000013D1B@hermes.cwu.edu>

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Please forgive me if this is not the appropriate list to post this on. If =
this is a topic for another, more appropriate FreeBSD list, then would =
someone please kindly point this guy in the right direction? :)

I'm on the security advisory list too and got 2 emails about patches about =
a month ago. They came with instructions to follow for patching... =
excellent! Then, the last step has a link to the FreeBSD Handbook's =
Rebuilding world. Yes, I admit, it's taken me almost a month to get the =
courage (and find the time) to do this. I'm usually pretty fearless when =
exploring computer things. I don't really have the best way to backup =
either. I finally just made tarballs of important directories and scp'd =
them to one of my Linux machines. I finally got to the point where I =
booted to single user mode (first time for me) and that's where my =
problems began. It might be useful to note on the instructions page that =
you don't have to type "boot -s" to go into single user mode; it's easier =
to to just select option #4.

First, let me note that step one in rebuilding world should be "cd =
/usr/src", not "make buildworld". I guess I was supposed to know that for =
some reason. Having said that, I figured I would also have to be in =
/usr/src for the "make installworld" step. But I couldn't do that! Why? I =
could cd to /usr, but not /usr/src!

So, I decided to go ahead and try the "mergemaster -p" step. I was given =
an error that was something like "cannot find mergemaster". So I thought =
that maybe in single user mode my $PATH isn't set, so I thought about =
entering "/sbin/mergemaster -p", but I didn't know if that was the path or =
not and I chickened out. :( Maybe the fact that I hit Return to choose =
/bin/sh while going into single user mode instead of my preferred bash had =
something to do with it?

Here's a slightly dumb question: when I get this all figured out, do I =
have to start all over from "make buildworld" or can I just continue with =
booting in single user mode and "mergemaster -p"? I'm guessing I can just =
continue, but I thought it was important to ask.

Here's a little more intelligent question or two. ;) Is there a way to do =
this while logged in via ssh? I don't mind making the trip to our computer =
room so I can select #4 at the FreeBSD prompt, but it's not all that =
convenient. Also, how long (in general) do the steps "mergemaster -p" =
through the final reboot take? I am running FreeBSD on a test server, but =
if I were to use it for my production servers (which I am considering), =
the down-time of being in single user mode would be a concern.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this. :)

- Gavin



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