So the spanking new freebsd-update doesn’t work for sparc systems… boo. Have to do everything manually. Here’s what I remember. Let me know if I forgot something, or its wrong.(very likely)

Install cvsup:

# cd /usr/ports/net/cvsup-without-gui/
# make install

install fastest cvsup:

# cd /usr/ports/sysutils/fastest_cvsup/
# make install
# fastest_cvsup -c us

Replace “us” with your country if it’s different. copy the default supfile to our own before editing.

# cp /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile /etc/stable-supfile
# cp /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile /etc/ports-supfile

edit both of them and change the

*default host=

to the fastest cvsup server from the “fastest cvsup”

then update the ports

# cvsup -L2 -g /etc/ports-supfile
# cvsup -L2 -g /etc/stable-supfile

Then i guess we try to build the world. see if something breaky.

# cd /usr/src
# make buildworld

Recompiled kernel. I have my own kernel called “MYSPARC2″. Yours might just be “GENERIC”

# cd /usr/src
# make buildkernel KERNCONF=MYSPARC2
# make installkernel KERNCONF=MYSPARC2

rebooted into single user mode then:

# mount -u /
# mount -a -t ufs
# swapon -a

Now you are ready to install the new world.

# cd /usr/src
# make installworld

After that was done, mergemaster to update your configs:

mergemaster -v

Then used portmaster to upgrade all of the ports.

# portmaster -a

Basically everything i know about BSD comes from or stems from something I’ve read at freebsdmadeeasy.com

source: http://www.freebsdmadeeasy.com/tutorials/freebsd/updating-freebsd-with-cvsup.php

scary. I updated freebsd, and i can only think that i messed it up when i tried to “shutdown -h” to get it shutdown so i could reboot. anyways, when i rebooted, i saw this message. apparently there was a kernel dump on my swap drive. But problem is that i didn’t have enough room on /var/crash to make it happen. i redirected the commands ot the /usr/home/ program.

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug.html
fsck -p
mount -a -t ufs
make sure /var/crash is writable
savecore /var/crash /dev/ad0b
exit
exit to multi-user

note to self… do NOT kill mysql processes from phpmyadmin’s control panel and force mysql to quit. Bad things happen. In this case, mysql wouldnt start again. InnoDB’s indexes, binary logs, etc. were all out of sync. The 20 page log explaining all the ways the DB couldn’t start is located in the DB’s data dir, which in my case was in /dbdisks/<hostname>.err.

To tell mysql to pick up the messy pieces and throw up whats left of your data, edit or create /etc/my.cnf and add this little line to the “[mysqld]” section:

innodb_force_recovery = 3


The command is talked aboot here the number is btw 1 and 6. bigger the number, the more drastic and desperate it is. I tried 4, and it pulled the tables with no data. 1 gave me nothing. but 3 let me start and mysqldump my database.

mysqldump -u root -p <dbname > /path/to/.sql/file


so once the dump was completed, i moved the db data directory, commented out the “innodb_force_recovery” line, and restarted the computer. At restart the db data dir was re-created by mysql. fresh and clean. this deletes EVERYTHING. even users. re-import the data with

mysql -u root <dbname> < /path/to/.sql/file


go ahead and create the users needed, and set root password again. There you go.