At some point, you might want to upgrade your NetBSD base system, be it due to a Security Advisory or just because you want to try the coming release. Although, this is covered on [Chapter 4](https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-upgrading.html) of the NetBSD-guide, I'm writing here a short walk through of the process as I usually do it. You can either use `sysinst` or `sysupgrade` to do this. Actually, you can do it all manually if you wish but, I won't cover that option here, as this means you know what you are doing and won't be needing to read this ;) Using `sysupgrade` is somewhat limited, quoting the Guide: > NOTE: upgrades across major binary releases might not work properly because of the lack of a reboot between the kernel installation and the unpacking of the sets. so, I prefer to use `sysinst` to do the job. As an example, I'm upgrading my own system (9.0_RC1) using the images from the [daily-builds](https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/). In fact, I'm upgrading within the same release but, the procedure is in all similar when updating across releases, with the exception that, you might need some adjustments in `/etc` afterwards. **HEADS-UP!!!** Any of the following may result in data loss! Back-up all important data before doing this! Download the most [recent image for your system](https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/images/), mine is amd64 and I'm using legacy boot. Once you have downloaded the image, verify its integrity against the [published sums](https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/images/MD5), if the image sum matches, proceed with the unpacking ``` $ cd Downloads/ $ cksum -a MD5 NetBSD-9.0_RC1-amd64-install.img.gz MD5 (NetBSD-9.0_RC1-amd64-install.img.gz) = c89aaa14380d065bbba57424cc260a5b $ gunzip NetBSD-9.0_RC1-amd64-install.img.gz ``` Attach an usb-device and check for its presence, ``` $ sysctl hw.disknames hw.disknames = wd0 sd0 $ dmesg ... [ 885.151377] sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: disk removable [ 885.161381] sd0: fabricating a geometry [ 885.161381] sd0: 14784 MB, 14784 cyl, 64 head, 32 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 30277632 sectors [ 885.161381] sd0: fabricating a geometry ``` Copy the unpacked image to your device using `dd` and shutdown the system ``` $ pwd /home/pin/Downloads $ doas dd if=NetBSD-9.0_RC1-amd64-install.img of=/dev/rsd0d bs=2m Password: 725+0 records in 725+0 records out 1520435200 bytes transferred in 66.967 secs (22704245 bytes/sec) $ doas shutdown -p now ``` Time to boot from the install image and upgrade your machine! Once you have booted the install media and picked your keyboard layout, choose option `>b: Upgrade NetBSD on a hard disk` Answer **Yes** to the next question and choose the target disk. Proceed with choosing bootblocks `>a: Use BIOS console` followed by choosing the distribution filesets `>a: Full installation` Pick the source `>a: CD-ROM/DVD/install image media` ...and let `sysinst` do its job :) When prompted `Hit enter to continue` Back at the start installation screen choose `>x: Exit Install System` At the bottom of your screen type `#shutdown -p now` Remove the install media, boot-up the machine... _et voilà_ [img]https://i.postimg.cc/8kwSY19W/2020-01-08-113627-1366x768-scrot.png[/img]

@"pin"#p1048 actually i prefer `sysupgrade` than `sysinst` for upgrading :)

I feel this post will come in handy some day soon :) Last time I used sysupgrade I had problems so I think I'll try sysinst next time.

Hm, upgrading to 9.0 did not go well. I should have checked that binary packages was available before I started. I got some errors in the process, iirc something about fontconfig and X11. And yes, Windowmaker is broken and wpa_supplicant behaves strange, turning on and sometimes off. While I can build everything myself with pkgsrc I will not choose that option at this point but reinstalling 8.1 and hold off on 9.0 for a while.

@"el-topo"#p1504 you can pull binaries from Japan, that's what I'm doing, ...[here](http://www.ki.nu/pkgsrc/packages/current/NetBSD-9.0/All/) The rest I can help you with, just not today :( Please, let me know, I've done this several times. EDIT: See if manually removing `/etc/rc.d/dhclient` and `/etc/rc.d/isdnd` solves your `wpa_supplicant` issues. These are no longer a part of the system in 9.0. Unrelated, add nvmm to `/etc/group` by adding `nvmm:*:34:root` to the list, this is also new. For the remaining issues you describe set-up the release source directories as described in [Chapter 30](https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-fetch.html) and use [postinstall](https://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?postinstall+8.amd64+NetBSD-9.0) to correct these. `postinstall check` and `postinstall fix` are your friends and will tell you exactly what to do.

Thanks for the tip. I pulled down binaries from ki.nu RC2 but quite a few packages were missing and now the Window Maker binary wmaker mysteriously disappeared from the system even though it looks like it installed? Very strange... I saw that you wrote about another ki.nu repo in the other thread, is there a problem switching to that branch when I already have RC2 packages on the system?

> @"el-topo"#p1510 is there a problem switching to that branch when I already have RC2 packages on the system? It shouldn't, I did just that a couple of hours ago, updated the system and everything is working. Actually, I've been doing this since 9.0_BETA which, in turn was originaly a 8.1_STABLE install. Remember that all these packages come from builds based on pkgsrc-current ;)

Cool, I'm downloading right now and it's a much smoother ride. No errors so far :)

It passes all postinstall checks now but X is still broken. I tried to generate a xorg.conf file but got an error saying that the number of displays does not match the number of screens. Which is strange because it finds two displays and two screens (there is just one screen attached to this laptop though). Any idea what can be wrong with this conf? ``` Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "Files" ModulePath "/usr/X11R7/lib/modules" FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/" FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/" FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/" FontPath "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dri" Load "dri2" Load "glx" Load "shadow" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "wsmouse" Option "Device" "/dev/wsmouse" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Monitor Vendor" ModelName "Monitor Model" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor1" VendorName "Monitor Vendor" ModelName "Monitor Model" EndSection Section "Device" ### Available Driver options are:- ### Values: : integer, : float, : "True"/"False", ### : "String", : " Hz/kHz/MHz", ### : "%" ### [arg]: arg optional #Option "Accel" # [] #Option "AccelMethod" # #Option "Backlight" # #Option "CustomEDID" # #Option "DRI" # #Option "Present" # [] #Option "ColorKey" # #Option "VideoKey" # #Option "Tiling" # [] #Option "LinearFramebuffer" # [] #Option "HWRotation" # [] #Option "VSync" # [] #Option "PageFlip" # [] #Option "SwapbuffersWait" # [] #Option "TripleBuffer" # [] #Option "XvPreferOverlay" # [] #Option "HotPlug" # [] #Option "ReprobeOutputs" # [] #Option "XvMC" # [] #Option "ZaphodHeads" # #Option "VirtualHeads" # #Option "TearFree" # [] #Option "PerCrtcPixmaps" # [] #Option "FallbackDebug" # [] #Option "DebugFlushBatches" # [] #Option "DebugFlushCaches" # [] #Option "DebugWait" # [] #Option "BufferCache" # [] Identifier "Card0" Driver "intel" BusID "PCI:0:2:0" EndSection Section "Device" ### Available Driver options are:- ### Values: : integer, : float, : "True"/"False", ### : "String", : " Hz/kHz/MHz", ### : "%" ### [arg]: arg optional #Option "Accel" # [] #Option "AccelMethod" # #Option "Backlight" # #Option "CustomEDID" # #Option "DRI" # #Option "Present" # [] #Option "ColorKey" # #Option "VideoKey" # #Option "Tiling" # [] #Option "LinearFramebuffer" # [] #Option "HWRotation" # [] #Option "VSync" # [] #Option "PageFlip" # [] #Option "SwapbuffersWait" # [] #Option "TripleBuffer" # [] #Option "XvPreferOverlay" # [] #Option "HotPlug" # [] #Option "ReprobeOutputs" # [] #Option "XvMC" # [] #Option "ZaphodHeads" # #Option "VirtualHeads" # #Option "TearFree" # [] #Option "PerCrtcPixmaps" # [] #Option "FallbackDebug" # [] #Option "DebugFlushBatches" # [] #Option "DebugFlushCaches" # [] #Option "DebugWait" # [] #Option "BufferCache" # [] Identifier "Card1" Driver "intel" BusID "PCI:0:2:1" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 1 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 4 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 8 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 15 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 16 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen1" Device "Card1" Monitor "Monitor1" SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 1 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 4 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 8 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 15 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 16 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection ```

@"el-topo"#p1514 I'd have to check, I've never had to created a `xorg.conf`. I can check tomorrow 😴 Although this (at the start of your file) looks suspicious. ``` Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0" ```

@"pin"#p1515 Yeah, I thought so too. I tried removing this and doing various combinations with or without the double display/screen sections but with no effect.

Upgrading NetBSD using sysinst

Sam I always use the STABLE branch on my NetBSD installations. I just installed a RELEASE version, and then I fetch and compile the STABLE branch.

🙂 I usually wait a day or two after the RELEASE and install STABLE from the daily builds. After that, I upgrade every week by pulling a new image from the daily buils and using sysinst to upgrade the base system. As for pkgsrc, I use the current branch.

dev0

How would you use sysinst to update an installation that was installed on a cryptographic device cgd0?

I assume one would go to a shell from the installer, manually mount the file systems and then go back and perform the upgrade. Has anyone tried this and can report on it?

nia

dev0 sysinst has a "upgrade current system" option when run on a live system, but I'd really just use sysupgrade in that case.

dev0

nia Thanks for the hint.

I tried the upgrade with sysupgrade. After supplying it with the right configuration, it worked flawlessly.

pfr

will sysupgrade fetch the most recent daily build?
I assume sysupgrade auto https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64 will work.
is that the correct address?

nia

pfr yes

Jay

pfr I use nyftp.netbsd.org as mirror sometimes nycdn gives me disconnection problems..

pfr

Jay

# sysupgrade auto https://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64 sysupgrade: I: Starting auto-update with stages: fetch modules kernel sets etcupdate postinstall clean sysupgrade: I: Downloading https://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz into /var/cache/sysupgrade Requesting https://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz ftp: Error retrieving file 404 Not Found sysupgrade: E: Failed to fetch https://nyftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz

Jay

pfr I guess nycdn is defaulted now..

pfr

It would appear that nycdn does not work either...

# sysupgrade auto https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64 sysupgrade: I: Starting auto-update with stages: fetch modules kernel sets etcupdate postinstall clean sysupgrade: I: Downloading https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz into /var/cache/sysupgrade Trying [2a04:4e42::262]:443 ... ftp: Can't connect to 2a04:4e42::262:443: No route to host Trying [2a04:4e42:200::262]:443 ... ftp: Can't connect to 2a04:4e42:200::262:443: No route to host Trying [2a04:4e42:400::262]:443 ... ftp: Can't connect to 2a04:4e42:400::262:443: No route to host Trying [2a04:4e42:600::262]:443 ... ftp: Can't connect to 2a04:4e42:600::262:443: No route to host Trying 151.101.1.6:443 ... Requesting https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz ftp: Error retrieving file 404 Not Found sysupgrade: E: Failed to fetch https://nycdn.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz

besides the no route to host errors, its still returning with 404 Not Found. is it looking for base.tgz when its actually base.tar.xz ?

pfr Have a look at the source/sets for a release and for a stable branch.
Revisit Chapter 30.

Also, quoting section 4.2,

The sysupgrade utility (currently found in pkgsrc/sysutils/sysupgrade) allows you to upgrade a running system to a newer binary release.
...
Let's assume you are running NetBSD/amd64 7.1 and you wish to upgrade to NetBSD 7.2. The procedure to do so would be to run the following command:
...

So, the question is, can you actually use sysupgrade to move from a stable daily-build to another stable daily-build within the same release?

Jay

pfr /usr/pkg/etc/sysupgrade.conf add ARCHIVE_EXTENSION=tar.xz

And in /etc/rc.conf :

ipv6addrctl=YES

ipv6addrctl_policy=ipv4_prefer

Jay Does it work for you? From a daily-build to another daily-build?

Jay

pin yes I did it once..

Jay Good to know, thx 🙂

pfr

Jay
pin
I'm really unsure if it worked for me...
$ uname -v NetBSD 9.0_STABLE (GENERIC) #0: Sun May 31 10:46:21 UTC 2020 mkrepro@mkrepro.NetBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC
Where it should reflect the 6th Jun version?

pfr It's correct, the latest kernel is from May 31 😉
That's the one on my system, upgraded with sysinst on Friday.

pfr

pin ahhh ok, see I thought is should show the date of the Daily build. 😅

czacn

.
i have several questions about updating NetBSD, so i'm writing them one by one.
i'm currently running NetBSD 9.0, the "Formal Release", the "major RELEASE".

what (i think) i want is this: from "Chapter 33. Updating an existing system from sources".
https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-updating.html

"A common mechanism for upgrading a NetBSD system to a newer version is by rebuilding the system from sources and installing the results."
.
"In particular, if you are running a stable NetBSD release in a production environment, you are encouraged to perform this procedure regularly in order to incorporate any security fixes that have been applied to the branch since its release."

this is what i actually want.
i'm not talking about upgrading across major releases. i'm not talking about upgrading from NetBSD 8.0 to NetBSD 9.0. or: upgrading from NetBSD 9.0 to NetBSD 10.0. No.

--
(MY FIRST QUESTION IS,) what is/are the easiest, most simple list of terminal commands to update the operating system: (quote) "in order to incorporate any security fixes that have been applied". example: for Debian Linux it's: "apt update", "apt upgrade".

So, following the guide: https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-updating.html

i ran: "sysbuild build".
the process took 6 hours. here's the output:

make release started at: Mon Jul 20 19:44:24 UTC 2020 make release finished at: Tue Jul 21 01:13:52 UTC 2020 ===> Successful make release ===> build.sh ended: Tue Jul 21 01:13:52 UTC 2020 ===> Summary of results: build.sh command: ./build.sh -D/root/sysbuild/amd64/destdir -M/root/sysbuild/amd64/obj -N2 -R/root/sysbuild/release -T/root/sysbuild/amd64/tools -U -X/usr/xsrc -j2 -mamd64 -x release build.sh started: Mon Jul 20 19:44:15 UTC 2020 NetBSD version: 9.0_STABLE MACHINE: amd64 MACHINE_ARCH: x86_64 Build platform: NetBSD 9.0 amd64 HOST_SH: /bin/sh No $TOOLDIR/bin/nbmake, needs building. Bootstrapping nbmake MAKECONF file: /etc/mk.conf (File not found) TOOLDIR path: /root/sysbuild/amd64/tools DESTDIR path: /root/sysbuild/amd64/destdir RELEASEDIR path: /root/sysbuild/release Created /root/sysbuild/amd64/tools/bin/nbmake Updated makewrapper: /root/sysbuild/amd64/tools/bin/nbmake-amd64 Successful make release build.sh ended: Tue Jul 21 01:13:52 UTC 2020 ===> . sysbuild: I: Command finished successfully

.
then, following the guide, i ran:
sysupgrade auto ~/sysbuild/release/$(uname -m)
sysupgrade auto
both of them failed. output:
.

sysupgrade: I: Starting auto-update with stages: fetch modules kernel sets etcupdate postinstall clean sysupgrade: I: Linking local /root/sysbuild/release/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz into /var/cache/sysupgrade sysupgrade: E: Cannot open /root/sysbuild/release/amd64/binary/sets/base.tgz

--
(MY SECOND QUESTION IS,) what is causing these errors? and is just running "sysbuild build" is enough, and do i not need to run "sysupgrade" (in this case)? but the guide says so!

--
(MY THIRD QUESTION IS,) can someone please explain the difference between "sysbuild" and "sysupgrade" in 1-2 sentence (easy way)?

--
(MY FOURTH QUESTION IS,) is there not any kind of result report sheet, like: "you were running version/build "01" before, and now it has been updated to build/version "02". and these <a>, <b> and <c> security vulnerabilities has been fixed" ?
where do i get something like that?

--
(MY FIFTH QUESTION IS,) in Debian Linux, a simple "apt update", "apt upgrade" took couple of minutes only. is not there any faster method to achieve this in NetBSD? i have to run this 6 hours "sysbuild build" process again and again?

--
(MY SIXTH QUESTION IS,) it is written: (quote) "you are encouraged to perform this procedure regularly". well how much regularly? once in a month? twice in a month?

--
(MY SEVENTH QUESTION IS,) how do i know, by running a simple terminal command, that the NetBSD team has released a security update, and i better update soon? . or do i have to check out the following webpages for this purpose, say once weekly, and will that be enough?
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/security-announce/
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-announce/
https://www.netbsd.org/support/security/advisory.html
https://www.netbsd.org/changes/

so just following these links on weekly basis is enough?
what i found out till now is, since the release of NetBSD 9.0, there's been only one single security announcement, titled: "Security Advisory 2020-002: Specific ICMPv6 error message packet can crash the system".
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/security-announce/2020/03/11/msg000139.html
https://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/security/advisories/NetBSD-SA2020-002.txt.asc

and it is clearly mentioned: "NetBSD 9.0: not affected".

EDIT: UPDATE: also in the "NetBSD 9.0 Security Advisories" page:
https://www.netbsd.org/support/security/patches-9.0.html

"the list of advisories applicable to the NetBSD 9.0 release: None yet."

--
(MY EIGHTH QUESTION IS,) so although it is instructed in the guide: (quote) "you are encouraged to perform this procedure regularly"; but if i'm running NetBSD 9.0 (the "Formal Release") (the "major RELEASE"), and although it's been 6 months since NetBSD 9.0 released, as there's been no vulnerability announcement, so i do not need to perform any sysbuild-sysupgrade, right?

i want to know the easiest, most simple method.
THANK YOU, FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS LONG QUESTIONNAIRE.

Jay

czacn you don't have to build as new daily builds are available on repository

https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/96-upgrade/4

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