Upgrade FBSD-5.3

[GhostDawg]

Well I just went and took a look at my fbsd 5.3 and don't quite like what I see. Last time I booted is in Nov. '05. Stuff is working okay but I can't seem to find a cvs-supfile, which I thought I had. When I booted it, I received messages saying /var is full, which it is.

Is it worth upgrading this install to release 6 or should I start from scratch? Nothing on it really important so a reinstall would be fine.

If I reinstall, can I backup my /etc and use it for 6 or don't worry about it?

Thnx.

[Compunuts]

I don't use FBSD but ...

I generally love clean installs if I have to re-install it. Plus if your var is full, chances are that you are going to need to re-configure your partitions in your slice so I'd suggest you go ahead and reinstall it clean, and increase your space for /var.

[GhostDawg]

Thnx for the reply. I may just delete the partition and merge with another partition and put another distro on it.

Or I may reinstall Fbsd.

[GhostDawg]

Can I use qtparted to format/delete my freebsd partition? What is the best way to get rid of it? It is a primary partition and I decided to get rid of it instead of ugrading fbsd. /dev/hda3 is the partition info.

Thnx.

[Compunuts]

You should be able to if you just want to recover the disk space and format it. I'm not sure qtparted support BSD file system but I'm sure all can format any specific partition (BSD slice) to your liking.

[Schotty]

I would say that much of a leap (5.x -> 6.x) would require a clean install.

Make life easier and make a separate /home and just keep all your stuff there. I generally make a dummy user for all of the data that actually is stored for that reason.

[GhostDawg]

Well, I've since removed the partition and installed PCLinuxOS and now installed PC-BSD into it. I must say that its not a bad bsd, based on FBSD 6.0...it has a very nice install routine and picks up hardware very well.

Thnx. for the replies.

[Kernel_Killer]

Next time, update ports-src accordingly, go into /usr/src, and do:

make buildworld
make buildkernel KERNCONF=<KERNEL NAME>
make installkernel KERNCONF=<KERNEL NAME>

Reboot your system, and go into single-user mode, and do:

fsck -p
mount -u /
mount -a -t ufs
swapon -a
cd /usr/src
make installworld
mergemaster -a

Welcome to your new updated system.

[Schotty]

make buildworld
make buildkernel KERNCONF=<KERNEL NAME>
make installkernel KERNCONF=<KERNEL NAME>

Reboot your system, and go into single-user mode, and do:

fsck -p
mount -u /
mount -a -t ufs
swapon -a
cd /usr/src
make installworld
mergemaster -a

Welcome to your new updated system.

Now why hasnt anyone ever made it that simple before? Or rather a few years back when I tried the BSD tango? Thats not that bad to do an update. The method I tried was not so simple, nor very successful.

Ah well ....