Re: Converting FBSD installation to DFBSD?

[David Rhodus <drhodus@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

James Frazer wrote:

> Just a curious related question here:
>
> Is mergemaster always necessary?  I haven't used it much because when 
> I did use it it either confused me or broke things.


If you'll look at the webpage I sent, one of the last things it says to 
do is run upgrade_etc
from /usr/src/etc/.
This will take care of your etc dir as mergemaster can be very trickey 
and with this option
mostly not needed anymore in DragonFly.

-DR

> Plus reading through a whole bunch of diffs didn't appeal to me.  I 
> didn't really understand what it was asking me to do.  It definately 
> wasn't automatic (like the rest of the build/install process) and 
> mostly turned into mindless button pressing (just to get through to 
> the end), because I don't really have 2 hours available to sit around 
> reading diffs.
>
> Or maybe I did something painfully wrong?
>
> It was a disaster nonetheless,
>
>
> --James
>
>
>
>
> Matthew Dillon wrote:
>
> > :I have a machine with a little-used FBSD-4.9 installation which I
> > :wouldn't mind sacrificing to try out DFBSD.
> > :
> > :So, I was wondering if I could just cvsup new DFBSD sources to
> > :replace the FBSD sources and proceed to compile the new system
> > :that way.
> > :
> > :Will a FBSD kernel run executables which are compiled for BFBSD,
> > :I suppose is the obvious question.  Will the installworld
> > :die in the middle when some critical bit of userland gets
> > :suddenly replaced?
> >
> >     You should be able to do a buildworld, buildkernel, installkernel,
> >     installworld sequence from a FreeBSD-4.x machine.  The installworld
> >     should be able to proceed through without blowing up.  But if you
> >     do a partial installworld you can end up in a no-win situation 
> > because
> >     you won't be able to rebuild the world with a FreeBSD machine and
> >     DragonFly includes.  Once the world is installed I would also 
> > recommend
> >     running the 'upgrade' target, which will clean up the RC files, a 
> > good
> >     chunk (but not all) of the stale binaries left over from FBsd, 
> > and     most of /etc, before doing mergemaster.
> >
> >     The safest route is to burn the DragonFly CD ISO we have 
> > available on
> >     our site and to blow away your disk.  Even if you decide to try 
> > to     install over FreeBSD instead of blowing away the disk having a
> >     DragonFly CD lying around can be extremely useful if you get stuck.
> >
> >     Also, if you burn a DFly CD, you can boot it without messing with 
> > your
> >     hard drive to make sure that DragonFly supports your machine's 
> > hardware.
> >
> >                     -Matt
> >                     Matthew Dillon                     
> > <dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>