I read many posts here and try to avoid making big mistakes.
I installed the current NomadBSD to an USB device and from there to my internal SSD because of higher speed and convenience on my laptop.
I updated the packages with OctoPkg and everything works fine.
I don’t use freebsd-update for not mixing NomadBSD with FreeBSD. Is this right?
So I only use OctoPkg or pkg update to stay with an updated NomadBSD.
What to do with an upcoming new NomadBSD release and my installed system? With a reinstall, will all my data be deleted? (Of course I have a backup.) Or is it possible to use a “reinstall” and update my existing data without deleting them?
I would like to stay with NomadBSD. But I also wonder to install FreeBSD, which is more effort to get everything running. I used FreeBSD in the past, but I like the work of the NomadBSD developers and would like to stay with it.
The nomad developers will establish this in due course with a post here on the forum.
For my part, I have always done a new installation with new versions.
Thanks for your answers. I will use freebsd-update and pkg update to stay updated. And with a backup of my data I will see what happens on upcoming new releases.
I have accepted the quarterly pkg upgrade yesterday. All updated packages (141 in my case) was installed without interference and NomadBSD continues to run smoothly, hooray!
I have just upgraded NomadBSD to the latest FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE (following freebsd-updateinstruction), then updated 49 packages via OctoPkg. Everything is working perfectly, many thanks to devs!
To upgrade to 14.2 throws me a problem with /boot/device.hints and I would know how to solve it …
root@NomadBSD# freebsd-update upgrade -r 14.2-RELEASE
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 3 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 14.1-RELEASE from update2.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
kernel/generic src/src world/base
The following components of FreeBSD do not seem to be installed:
kernel/generic-dbg world/base-dbg world/lib32 world/lib32-dbg
Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y
Fetching metadata signature for 14.2-RELEASE from update2.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Fetching files from 14.1-RELEASE for merging... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
Attempting to automatically merge changes in files... done.
The following file could not be merged automatically: /boot/device.hints
Press Enter to edit this file in /usr/bin/vi and resolve the conflicts
manually...
Press Enter …
hint.atkbdc.0.at="isa"
hint.atkbdc.0.port="0x060"
hint.atkbd.0.at="atkbdc"
hint.atkbd.0.irq="1"
hint.psm.0.at="atkbdc"
hint.psm.0.irq="12"
hint.sc.0.at="isa"
hint.sc.0.flags="0x100"
hint.uart.0.at="acpi"
hint.uart.0.port="0x3F8"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x10"
<<<<<<< current version
hint.uart.0.irq="4"
#hint.uart.1.at="isa"
#hint.uart.1.port="0x2F8"
#hint.uart.1.irq="3"
hint.ppc.0.at="isa"
hint.ppc.0.irq="7"
=======
hint.uart.1.at="acpi"
hint.uart.1.port="0x2F8"
>>>>>>> 14.2-RELEASE
hint.atrtc.0.at="isa"
/var/db/freebsd-update/merge/new//boot/device.hints: unmodified: line 1
You were also faced the message (I can not remember the exact words) straight after the ‘upgrade’ , that the preparation completed and you now have to ‘freebsd-update install’.
If you are now told that the system is up to date and there are no updates, you will have to repeat ‘freebsd-update upgrade -r 14.2-RELEASE’ again, this time following ‘freebsd-update install’.
BTW, you do not need to escape vi and switch ir to ee, just delete outdated lines your cursor is on by typing “dd”, and then leave the editor by “:x” (saving your corrections to the file, or “:q!” to quit vi without saving, or “:w” to save first, then “:q” to quit). If you made a mistake in vi, type “undo” or just “u” after [Esc].
Although the instruction does not require that, it might be worth to align all the packages to the new FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE:
Honestly, I do not know. I have not modified device.hints myself, so I accepted updater’s suggestion to replace all the marked lines above with the new ones below (and also removed three lines beginning with <<<, ===, and >>>).
