On 10/11/2020 15:21, Bob Eager wrote:
On Tue, 10 Nov 2020 14:43:54 +0000, Mike Scott wrote:
Hi all.
I've just upgraded a machine from 11.3 to 11.4.
It runs a custom kernel, and I followed the steps in the handbook using
"freebsd-update -r 11.4". However, the GENERIC kernel was not upgraded,
and remains at 11.3.
This is unexpected - I expected GENERIC would be updated as part of the
process. I've rebuilt the custom kernel, and all seems well after
booting that.
But:
* should GENERIC have updated? Why might it not have done so?
* will this cause possible problems when/if I upgrade to 12.x?
It would have updated /boot/kernel/kernel to the new generic kernel.
Which is probably where your old custom kernel was.
I suspect you built your new custom kernel in the same place.
freebsd-update won't randomly update other kernels, even if they in a directiry (presumably created by you as a backup, just like I do) in / boot/GENERIC.
Thanks for the comment, and I take your point.
But now I'm extremely confused, and thinking the handbook is misleading.
The handbook (
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html)
seems pretty clear that a GENERIC kernel must exist in /boot/GENERIC:
"If the system is running a custom kernel, make sure that a copy of the
GENERIC kernel exists in /boot/GENERIC before starting the upgrade."
and heavily implies one is running the custom kernel at the start of the upgrade:
"If the system is running with a custom kernel, use nextboot(8) to set
the kernel for the next boot to the updated /boot/GENERIC:"
and that GENERIC will have been updated:
"Before rebooting with the GENERIC kernel, ..... The machine should now
be restarted with the updated kernel:"
Also (for >=9.x)
"Rebooting into the GENERIC kernel is not required as freebsd-update
only needs /boot/GENERIC to exist."
So my understanding of the handbook was that GENERIC would be updated,
and a manual rebuild (fair enough!) of any custom kernel is necessary.
From what you're saying, I should have renamed after the upgrade
/boot/kernel => /boot/GENERIC and then built the custom /boot/kernel.
Looks like I ought to fish out an 11.4 GENERIC from a dvd. Mind you, I'm seriously albeit reluctantly considering ditching fbsd (which has served
me well for many years) - I'm pondering on replacing my small home
server with a pi4, and fbsd support for the pi's seems very tardy :-{ So
this might just be the last upgrade anyway; I'd rather it weren't.
Sorry that's a bit long.
--
Mike Scott
Harlow, England
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