On 7/24/24 12:17 AM, Will Senn wrote:
Hi,
NetBSD newb here. I know FreeBSD well, a bit about OpenBSD, and lots
about Linux. My question is after installing, how do I check for
updates to the system itself and get them installed (security
updates, kernel updates, etc)... or is this not a thing with NetBSD?
I figure packages are updatable via the pkg management tools
(pkg_add/pkgsrc) doing my research on this as we speak.
Help appreciated and if there's a common set of procedures folks
follow, that'd be good to know, too... in freebsd: freebsd_update
fetch install for system updates, pkg update && pkg upgrade for
packages and mint: apt update && apt upgrade for the same sorts of
updates... that kind of thing.
Thanks,
Will
Hi Will,
Here is my procedure for upgrading NetBSD from the "stable" branches'
nightly builds.
1. Make a backup
2. Update the kernel
# cd /
# mv netbsd netbsd-10
# ftp -V -o "|pax -zrvpe"
http://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-10/latest/amd64/binary/sets/kern-GENERIC.tar.xz
You'll have to make sure the right version, architecture and kernel
are part of the path. There is also a "kernel" directory alongside
"sets" with zipped kernels if you need something other than GENERIC.
3. Reboot (to single user mode may be best, but that's not strictly
necessary. Maybe for production servers to keep the services off).
Also when upgrading from say netbsd-9 to netbsd-10 - it might be a
good idea to update from single user.
From single user mode you'll have to at least start the network so
we can get to the NetBSD distribution.
# mount -uw /
# /etc/rc.d/network start
(this may or may not be enough, depending on the machine)
4. Assuming the system came back up and is on the network, update the
sets. Look in /etc/mtree to see which sets were installed on this
machine:
# ls /etc/mtree
NetBSD.dist set.base set.etc set.man set.misc
set.modules set.rescue set.text special
Excluding the "etc" set, retrieve and unpack all sets...
# cd /
# for i in base man misc modules rescue text ;do
> ftp -V -o "|pax -zrvpe"
http://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-10/latest/amd64/binary/sets/{i}.tar.xz
> done
5. Now retrieve (but don't unpack) the etc set and run "etcupdate"
# cd /tmp
# ftp
http://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-10/latest/amd64/binary/sets/etc.tar.xz
# etcupdate -s etc.tar.xz
"etcupdate" will walk you through all updated/modified/new
configurations and will give you an opportunity to merge your
changes in. It also runs "postinstall", which will remove obsolete
files from the system.
6. Update device nodes:
# cd /dev
# sh MAKEDEV all
7. Reboot the system. If it comes up, you're all done!
For pkgsrc upgrades, look at "pkgin" (for binary updates, fairly
similar to apt-get) and "pkg_rolling-replace" for updating packages
from source.
--
Louis