Does anyone think I should upgrade to 5.2.1 before 5.3 (stable) comes out? Would it make the transition to 5.3 easier in the long run?

I'd do it.

UD.

Same here.

I just did that today, and it went smoothly. Just don't forget to read /usr/src/UPDATING

everything went smoothly . well, besides the part where I almost shit my pants during reboot. rebooting is scary after you leave the windows world

I've not done a buildworld remotely yet. Those would scare the hell out of me.

oh don't worry it did. but then again I've always been known by my friends to do really stupid stuff just to stay on the cutting edge even when it's not worth it.

going to 5.2.1 made my system more stable I think. Well so far it has been up since 25+ days and it usually crashes after 28+ days so let's see.


Make word remote is really scary. It's those minutes after the reboots that make your heart beat like....woooomp.....10seconds.....whoooooomp.......12seconds.......whoooooooomp.
..
and then once the machine pings again
wompwompwompwompwompwomp... pheeeeeewwwww.... (open a beer)

If I wasn't sharing my server with someone, I'd do a src upgrade from 4.9 to 5.2.1. There's quite a bit of jail improvement in 5.x.

UD.

I would go for it.

Just be sure to back up /etc/rc.d as stated in one of the previous threads I posted a few months back.

I went from 5.1 to 5.2.1-p2 back then, today I am doing the p2 to p8 update to be on top of it... probably not worth it from p2 to p8 but I am gonna do it before i load everything to the server so its time to do so

good luck if you do.

I do buildworlds remotely all the time. Its fun

There are quite a few improvements that would indeed make it noteworthy. I personally do suggest however installing from scratch, but that is my choice. There is a lot of difference between the two versions, and some of the stuff 4.x leaves behind could cause problems. But, on a good note, i successfully and without any problems so far did the same thing.

cvsup standard-supfile
cd /usr/src
make buildkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC
make buildworld -j4
make installkernel KERNCONF=GENERIC
shutdown -r now Update

-- Sweat for 3 - 10 minutes

cd /usr/src
mergemaster -p
make installworld
mergemaster (One mistake with this sucker and you could just have erased a file. Something i did, and had to walk down to my basement to fix it , was lucky that time. But normally it is not that hard.)
shutdown -r now

-- Sweat for 3 - 10 minutes

uname -a
<updated version>

Now custom kernels is when it gets nice, just make sure to not leave out the NIC .

rejoice .

FreeBSD 5 STABLE will be here in a few weeks. So I wouldn't really go to 5.2.1 till RELENG_5 becomes STABLE

The branch tag has *nothing* to do with the stability of the code. -STABLE does not mean it's more stable then any other release. The -RELEASE tags will *always* be the most stable code. It goes through a lengthy QA and RC process to make certain that it is as stable as possible. -STABLE goes through no such process and therefor should never be counted on to be stable (or even compile).

UD.