freebsd stable - Dec 2018 - Success updating stable/11 to /12; a couple things to note

I update my "production" systems here at home by use of a dedicated
(non-production) "build machine," mounting its /usr/src & /usr/obj
read-only via NFS and performing (essentially) "make installkernel"
and "make installworld" -- details on the process may be found at
<http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/FreeBSD/upgrade.html>

I finally got my test machine operational again, and used it to test the
above process for upgrading from stable/11 to stable/12.

I'm happy to report success. :-)

I did encounter some bumps along the way; perhaps pointing them out now
may help someone else avoid them later on, so:

* I needed to change the script I use for performing the "make
  installkernel" so instead of:

    make installkernel DESTDIR=${DESTDIR}

  it does:

    make LD=ld.lld installkernel DESTDIR=${DESTDIR}


* I found that I actually needed to create the ntpd user on the
  running system prior to "make installworld" -- having run
  "mergemaster -U" against the target (DESTDIF) was insufficient.


* I needed to tell the build machine to actually build the additional
  .cf files for the target systems.  (Yes, I still use sendmail.
  Intentioanlly.)

That last is probably not something many others would encounter...  :-)

For amusement, here are the "uname -a" outputs from "before"
and "after":

FreeBSD pogo.catwhisker.org 11.2-STABLE FreeBSD 11.2-STABLE #848 
r342366M/342366: Sat Dec 22 03:35:40 PST 2018     root at
freebeast.catwhisker.org:/common/S1/obj/usr/src/sys/ALBERT  amd64

FreeBSD pogo.catwhisker.org 12.0-STABLE FreeBSD 12.0-STABLE #63 r342545M/342550:
Thu Dec 27 03:50:26 PST 2018     root at
freebeast.catwhisker.org:/common/S3/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/ALBERT  amd64


(Note that I have not yet updated the installed ports; I have the
misc/compat11x port installed (via a locally-built package).  I expect
to perform that part of the upgrade after a week or so of
"shakedown.")

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
Yes, Mr. Trump, your behavior IS a disgrace -- to put it very nicely.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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On Thu, 2018-12-27 at 05:53 -0800, David Wolfskill
wrote:
> * I found that I actually needed to create the ntpd user on the
> ? running system prior to "make installworld" -- having run
> ? "mergemaster -U" against the target (DESTDIF) was insufficient.
The correct update sequence involves running mergemaster twice, once
with the -p option, then again later without it. It's detailed at the
bottom of UPDATING. People get in the habit of skipping the -p step
because it's only really needed once every few years, such as when a
new user is added to the base system.

-- Ian