Why I screwed up my NetBSD system?

[Ramiro Aceves <ea1abz%gmail.com@localhost>]

Hello,

Yesterday I think I did something weird. I was running NetBSD 10.99 in 
my raspberrypi Zero W.

I decided to do an upgrade to NetBSD 10-RC1 using sysupgrade utility. I 
configured sysupgrade configuration file to download the sets from:

https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-10.0_RC1/evbarm-earmv6hf/

# sysupgrade fetch

I downloaded the sets.


As there is no automated way of upgrading dtb files, firmware and 
kernel, I downloaded this:

https://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-10.0_RC1/evbarm-earmv6hf/binary/gzimg/rpi.img.gz

I gunziped and vndconfig the image and mounted the MSDOS partition just 
to extract the kernel, firmware and rest of stuff, and I put everything 
in /boot. I did someting like cp -a * /boot. I inspected /boot directory 
and everything apeared to be fine in place.

# sysupgrade kernel (I think it puts a kernel in / but raspberry pi does 
not use that.
# sysupgrade modules
# reboot

System rebooted from the RC1 kernel but I could not access the RPI from 
ssh anymore, and I connected a TV set to see what happened and rebooted 
again. System started but wpasupplicant sent an error, something like 
failed a system call. I could not make the network work.

# sysupgrade sets

Sets where untared ok in place.

# sysupgrade etcupdate

just fine if I recalled correctly.

# sysupgrade postinstall

Many errors that I do not recall.

# reboot

reboot command did not work, shutdown -p now did not work. I did 
/rescue/reboot and paniced.

I rebooted the system removing power supply. The kernel started and 
showed the usual booting testing drivers. It stopped with init process 
paniced and kernel debug console appeared.

I broke every think and could not know how to fix it.

I extracted SD card and mounted in other computer. I think there were 
many "core dump" files in /


I copyied useful files (etc, var, home, root, just important things)  in 
my Intel Nuc 10-RC1 NetBSD  system and installed a fresh 10-RC1 system 
into the SD. Now raspberrypi it is working fine in NetBSD 10RC1 after 
restoring everything.

What was my mistake? Sorry for the lack of detail but is what I can 
recall from my poor memory. Just want to know what I did wrong and never 
do it in the future.

Thanks so much.
Ramiro.