# support



## Anonymous (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi!

I was a little surprise when I ran freebsd-update fetch and got:

```
WARNING: FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p4 is approaching its End-of-Life date.
It is strongly recommended that you upgrade to a newer
release within the next 1 week.
```

I thought that is support longer...
I don't want to upgrade to the higher version now. I prefer to wait to january, february for the new version...
Is it safe to run 8.0 release (I don't have a server just a standalone computer)"
Thank in advance.

Mitja
------
http://jpgmag.com/people/lumiwa


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## UNIXgod (Nov 22, 2010)

point zero releases should really be considered _a bit better than beta_. Why don't you want to upgrade to 8.1? It really is better than 8.0. (I had many issues with 8.0)


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## eye (Nov 22, 2010)

> Early adopter
> Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months after the release.


http://www.freebsd.org/security/#sup


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## ckester (Nov 22, 2010)

eye said:
			
		

> http://www.freebsd.org/security/#sup



FreeBSD 8.0 is classified as "Normal" type (not Early Adopter):



> Normal
> Releases which are published from a -STABLE branch will be supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 12 months after the release, and for sufficient additional time (if needed) to ensure that there is a newer release for at least 3 months before the older Normal release expires.



To see how that statement applies:


FreeBSD 8.0 was released on 25 November 2009, so 12 months will have elapsed when support for it expires on 30 November 2010.

FreeBSD 8.1 was released on 23 July 2010, and thus will have been available for a little more than 3 months when support for FreeBSD 8.0 expires on 30 November.

Is it safe to continue running FreeBSD 8.0?   No one's stopping you from doing so, of course.  Your system isn't going to suddenly implode on 1 December.  But there won't be any more security advisories for it, and freebsd-update won't patch it any more.  That could mean your system is vulnerable.  Whether that's an acceptable risk is something you need to decide based on your own circumstances.


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## Anonymous (Nov 22, 2010)

UNIXgod said:
			
		

> point zero releases should really be considered _a bit better than beta_. Why don't you want to upgrade to 8.1? It really is better than 8.0. (I had many issues with 8.0)



8.0 works very good for me and I red many complains about 8.1.


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## SirDice (Nov 22, 2010)

lumiwa said:
			
		

> 8.0 works very good for me and I red many complains about 8.1.



Such as?


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## Anonymous (Nov 22, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Such as?



As I remember there were many complains about speed, ethernet speed...


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## UNIXgod (Nov 22, 2010)

I had issues with my nic. I replaced it coincidentally at 8.1 release with a new one based on the suggestions of forum members here.

I also has issues with zfs. I was also one of those whom made the mistake of being an early adopter of western digitals green ears drives.

None of these issues where directly related to FreeBSD. I apologize if I came off blaming the OS. In this case the diatribe was third party file systems and drivers.

I do feel that it is considered a good strategy to wait for at least a x.1 or even x.2 release in some cases as x.0 releases have always seem to have been with minor issues here and there being panned out usually by next point release.

I still resonate about the transition from 4.x to 5... then 4.x to 6.x... Which maybe be why I take a more conservative view on upgrading per point releases, even in stable branch.


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## Beastie (Nov 22, 2010)

lumiwa said:
			
		

> As I remember there were many complains about speed, ethernet speed...


Yeah, they're called bugs (none/nothing is perfect alas). They depend on the hardware you're using so your hardware's drivers may be fine or left untouched since the last version. And they are fixed in one version or another.
Personally, and thus far, I've never had any problem with RELEASEs when upgrading to a newer version.
But there's nothing to fear, really. If a new version fails horribly, you can always go back to the older version by keeping setup ISOs and packages/packaged ports or filesystem dump files.


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 22, 2010)

I use 8.1 and I have none problem. Everything works fine without problems, errors etc. Only one dvd drive is not working but is not FreeBSD's problem. Something strange happens with master, slave, jumpers etc.


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## Anonymous (Nov 24, 2010)

I will give a try with
[cmd=]freebsd-update upgrade -r 8.1-RELEASE[/cmd]
and I hope that will works.
I have one question more: do I need to rebuild all ports too?

Thanks...


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## sk8harddiefast (Nov 24, 2010)

I guess no. But maybe you need to rebuild world.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/makeworld.html


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## da1 (Nov 24, 2010)

lumiwa said:
			
		

> I will give a try with
> [cmd=]freebsd-update upgrade -r 8.1-RELEASE[/cmd]
> and I hope that will works.
> I have one question more: do I need to rebuild all ports too?
> ...



No, you don't. Minor upgrades do not require ports to be re-built. Major upgrades however, do.


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## wblock@ (Nov 24, 2010)

da1 said:
			
		

> No, you don't. Minor upgrades do not require ports to be re-built. Major upgrades however, do.



Just to expand on that: "major" and "minor" refer to FreeBSD version numbers, as in FreeBSD-_*major*.*minor*_.  Upgrading from FreeBSD 7.2 to 7.3, or 8.0 to 8.1, ports don't need to be rebuilt.  Upgrade from FreeBSD 7.2 to 8.1, yes, all ports must be rebuilt.


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## da1 (Nov 24, 2010)

Mh, good point wblock. thx


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