Subject: Re: updated snapshot on ftp.netbsd.org
To: A.Arnold <arnold@zam331.zam.kfa-juelich.de>
From: Jonathan Stone <jonathan@DSG.Stanford.EDU>
List: port-pmax
Date: 03/09/1997 17:13:03
>You also have to install a new kernel - it seems the new network programs need
>a few kernel functions that are not present in the 1.2 kernel. The kernel
>in the snapshot directory should work. You are not alone with this gotcha -
>the same happened to me when I updated. Thankfully, FTP'ing something INTO
>the machine still worked...
Oops, sorry, I took that as read.
The snapshots are (by definition) a snapshot of NetBSD-current.
-current has considerable enhancements over NetBSD 1.2.
You should usually install a new kernel (a reasonably recent version
of -current) *before* upgrading a system from NetBSD 1.2 to -current.
The problems you're most likely to run into include:
* support for, and using, a vaguely SysV-like poll()
system call, which doesn't have the fdset-size limitations
of select(); and
* A boot() system call that takes an extra argument. If you
run the /sbin/shutdown or /sbin/reboot binaries from -current
on a NetBSD-1.2 kernel, the system will silently hang.
If it's a DECstation, you'll have to powercycle it to get it back
This is, of course, not a problem when running -current binaries on
a -current kernel, *or* with running 1.2 binaries on a kernel
configured with COMPAT_12.
>Jonathan, if my remark about snap-
>shots offended you, I honestly apologize for it.
Oh no, that's fine. I just wanted to clarify what the `snapshots' are.