On 24.06.02, 19:58:53, Ben Cottrell wrote:
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> So due to recent events I figured it was probably time to upgrade my
> whole system, seeing as I'm still running 1.5.
> 
> I'm considering:
> 	* 1.5.2
> 	* The latest daily build of 1.6 on
> 	  ftp://releng.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/
> 	* The latest snapshot on
> 	  ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/sparc/snapshot/
> 	* Something else?

Wait a few more days and upgrade to 1.5.3. It's almost ready, I run
1.5.3_RC2 (on different hardware, including (for a few days) a
SparcStation 4). In fact, systems built from cvs sources updated with
-rnetbsd-1-5 call themselves "1.5.3", without ALPHAx, BETAx or
RCx. It has been very stable on all my machines. (i386, mac68k, hp300,
sparc)

>
> Any suggestions? I'm most concerned with the segfaulting that people
> were seeing a while back. I never saw a definitive resolution to
> that issue? Secondarily, I'd like to be as recent as possible so that
> upgrades aren't too hellish going forward.
> 
> I'm tentatively leaning towards one of the 1.6 daily builds, since
> I see on current-users that it's almost into the RCs, but could be
> dissuaded if there are bad sparc-specific (or sparc 20 specific)
> issues.

There are some issues with I/O congestion, effectively locking the
system for several seconds. It seems the problem itself is old, but is
magnified by a large file buffer, which is very common with UBC.

The release cycle of 1.5.3 is already more advanced than that of 1.6,
and an upgrade to 1.5.3 would mean a lot less hassle. It would also
mean fewer new features (UBC, ...).

It might even be possible to do a source-only upgrade, cvs update the
sources ("cvs update -d -P -rnetbsd-1-5") and make a new kernel, then
"make build", and you should have something called "1.5.3". It won't
be that easy for 1.6, you probably should do a binary upgrade.

> 	~Ben
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-- 
Bernd Sieker

NetBSD: "Progress on your system is closer than it appears."