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TIP: Don't upgrade the kernel
Kernel Configuration Posted by Jason on Wednesday December 26, @01:35PM
from the update-the-whole-os dept.
I have seen the question, "How do I upgrade the kernel in FreeBSD?" posted may times in many places. The simple answer to this question is you don't.

Many FreeBSD users come from a Linux background and they expect that they can upgrade the kernel in FreeBSD the same way they have in Linux.

However, if you upgrade only the kernel in FreeBSD things will break. FreeBSD was designed to be upgraded as a whole OS and not just the kernel.

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    The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
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    Re: TIP: Don't upgrade the kernel
    by martinus on Saturday January 05, @02:31AM
    I have compiled + upgraded my kernel quite often, and never had problems.
    [ Add a Reply to this ]
    • Re: TIP: Don't upgrade the kernel
      by Jason on Saturday January 05, @10:36AM
      You can add features to and compile your kernel as often as you want without problems. However updating your kernel source without updating everything else will cause problems.

      Here is a scenario for you:

      You are running FBSD-3.3-RELEASE and you decide to upgrade to the more rescent FreeBSD-4.4-STABLE. If you use something like cvs to download new source and try to compile a kernel and not perform a make {build/install}world to update the whole OS things can and do break. Devices may no longer work, and the ps and top utilities will often display strange output, etc.
      [ Reply to this ]

     
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