On Thu, 30 Apr 1998 16:36:40 -0400 (EDT)  Chuck Robey wrote:

> I have all my network and console problems nicely ironed out now, so I
> thought I'd create a new set of problems by upgrading from 1.2 to 1.3.1.
> I've done quite a bit of downloading, but the documents I've found all
> seem to concentrate on installation, not upgrading.  Seeing as I already
> have the system working, I don't see why I should go about doing the
> netbooting business.
>
> I'd like to ask a couple of questions then, so I can get busy upgrading.
> First, if I don't intend to netboot at all, can someone give me the
> *exact* name of the kernel image I should unpack in the root dir?  The
> installation writeups give 3 names, none of which match those files that
> are available fron ftp.netbsd.org.  The way I *think* I understand it, I
> need ecoff if I intend to netboot, but I can use and elf-linked kernel
> if I will have the kernel on the local system ... is that right?

>From another email I just sent to someone else:

   As for kernels, look in ~ftp/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-1.3.1/pmax/binary/kernel
   on any of the ftp mirrors.  You want "netbsd.gz" for a system that boots
   of disk and "netbsd.ecoff.gz" for netbooting.

I didn't say "remember to gunzip them" :)

> I've downloaded all the rest of the binary sets files already, so to
> upgrade, I think all I need to do is copy my existing kernel to
> kernel.old, unpack the new kernel, unpack all the verious sets tar files
> in place (I will be careful about where they go, obviously), then just
> reboot ... does that sound like a winning strategy?

You can upgrade either by using "sysinst" or unpacking everything
manually.  With "sysinst" you can boot of the diskimage or netboot.
You should also be able to just run the "sysinst" binary (after you
boot into single user mode with a new 1.3.1 kernel (remember to set and
export the TERM variable!)) and chose the "upgrade" option in the menu.

If you decide to upgrade manually, unpack all sets from the root
directory _except_ the etc.tgz set.  The etc set will overwrite your
existing configuration and log files.  I usually create a separate
directory and merge changes manually:

	cd /
	mkdir etc.new
	cd etc.new
	tar xpfz <path-to-sets>/etc.tgz
	diff -cr etc /etc | less

and move and/or change any files.

Sysinst does something similar - it moves the existing /etc to /etc.old
and extracts etc.tgz into a new /etc.  Hmm, it may overwrite any log
files in /var - I'm not sure about this.

Remember that there's no X11 sets for 1.3.1, only 1.3.  So you'll need
all the *.tgz files from the 1.3.1 directory and the x*.tgz from the 1.3
directory.

Jonathan - should we symlink the X sets back to the 1.3 ones?

> My ultimate goal is to download the current sources and rebuild the
> entire system here, but that's after I get to 1.3.1.  Once I get to that
> level, I'll be back about the various methods to get current.

Simon.