From 7f124c950a1c0e6dd13491b241e90f72f7eb867c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: John Baldwin Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 18:20:20 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Update the note about the need for COMPAT_FREEBSD kernel options. Rather than mentioning the requirement for 4.x binaries but not explaining why (it was assuming an upgrade from 4.x to 5.0-current), explain when compat options are needed (for running existing host binaries) in a more general way while using a more modern example (COMPAT_FREEBSD11 for 11.x binaries). While here, explicitly mention that a GENERIC kernel should always work. Reported by: Robert Huff Reviewed by: imp MFC after: 1 week Differential Revision: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D18740 --- UPDATING | 13 +++++++------ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) diff --git a/UPDATING b/UPDATING index 836f94e93cf5..f720ed4e8ad2 100644 --- a/UPDATING +++ b/UPDATING @@ -1901,12 +1901,13 @@ COMMON ITEMS: can be deleted by "make delete-old-libs", but you have to make sure that no program is using those libraries anymore. - [8] In order to have a kernel that can run the 4.x binaries needed to - do an installworld, you must include the COMPAT_FREEBSD4 option in - your kernel. Failure to do so may leave you with a system that is - hard to boot to recover. A similar kernel option COMPAT_FREEBSD5 is - required to run the 5.x binaries on more recent kernels. And so on - for COMPAT_FREEBSD6 and COMPAT_FREEBSD7. + [8] The new kernel must be able to run existing binaries used by + an installworld. When upgrading across major versions, the new + kernel's configuration must include the correct COMPAT_FREEBSD + option for existing binaries (e.g. COMPAT_FREEBSD11 to run 11.x + binaries). Failure to do so may leave you with a system that is + hard to boot to recover. A GENERIC kernel will include suitable + compatibility options to run binaries from older branches. Make sure that you merge any new devices from GENERIC since the last time you updated your kernel config file.