On Jul 25, 5:51am, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:
} On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 08:44:53AM -0600, Eric Haszlakiewicz wrote:
} > On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 05:31:39PM +1100, bsd-xen%roguewrt.org@localhost
wrote:
} > > A major upgrade without physical access ... you're game!
} > >
} > > And not syncing your userland and kernel while you have physical
} > > root access, life on the edge! hehe
} >
} > I thought I had shorn up that edge pretty well by doing a test upgrade
} > on a copy of the machine, but I guess I missed something.
}
} Why not upgrade the kernel first? In my experience that is always the
} safest way to go (and is usually safe for remote upgrades too).
Yep. I've taken systems from 1.6 to 4.0.1 this way without a
hitch. Basically, install new kernel (possibly custom built) and
/boot, reboot, upgrade userland (unpack all sets except *etc.tgz), use
postinstall/etcupgrade to handle /etc, make any other changes to /etc
that are needed, reboot, rebuild packages at your leisure. The only
failure I've had is with a botched installboot. On many platforms, you
can simply cp .../usr/mdec/boot /boot. Check installboot(8) to find
out.