# freebsd-update with custom kernel



## fwyKKCkQze2z (Mar 20, 2016)

I am running a FreeBSD 10.1 system with a custom kernel. I use (try to use) freebsd-update(8) to keep it up to date.

Because freebsd-update(8) always kept reporting that kernel updates were available when I had kernel listed in Components in /etc/freebsd-update.conf I removed it there.

My question now is: how do I keep the (custom) kernel up to date? Is freebsd-update(8) updating my /usr/src so rebuilding my kernel after running freebsd-update(8) without explicitly also updating the sources would do the trick? It seems that `uname -a` is indeed reporting the newest patch level when I do this.

But my gut feeling is that this assumption is not correct (i.e. freebsd-update(8) is *not* updating /usr/src) so recompiling the kernel actually does not really do anything besides wasting electricity.

Then, if that is true, how do I update my kernel (sources)? By running svn(1)[1]? SVN seems a bit - hmm - big. rsync [2]? Some other trick?

I found a forum post "freebsd-update suggest to update kernel" [3] which tackles the exact same problem; but the only answer does not say if kernel should be removed from freebsd-update.conf(8) and also not what the "best" (say: preferred by most admins?) way is to update the sources. It does however suggest that just running freebsd-update(8) and then recompile the kernel is not enough.


[1] https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/svn.html
[2] https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/mirrors-rsync.html
[3] https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/54220/


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## tobik@ (Mar 20, 2016)

fwyKKCkQze2z said:


> My question now is: how do I keep the (custom) kernel up to date? Is [FONT=Courier New]freebsd-update[/FONT] updating my [FONT=Courier New]/usr/src[/FONT] so rebuilding my kernel after running freebsd-update without explicitly also updating the sources would do the trick? It seems that [FONT=Courier New]uname -a[/FONT] is indeed reporting the newest patch level when I do this.


Yes, as long as you didn't remove the src component from /etc/freebsd-update.conf as well.


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## sidetone (Mar 20, 2016)

Reinstall your custom kernel separately, after you do `freebsd-update fetch install`. It doesn't need to be removed, it will be overwritten with a kernel compile/install. I use net/svnup to update my kernel sources, by using it with it's file in /usr/local/etc/svnup.conf. The link you posted about svn, is correct, where it lists "branch" to run on the command line. `svnlite` should come with the base system, and it should replace the `svn` command.

tobik, are you saying `freebsd-update` can fetch the sources to compile a custom kernel, without the need for svn commands? I'm also skeptical about this.


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## tobik@ (Mar 20, 2016)

sidetone said:


> tobik, are you saying  freebsd-update can fetch the sources to compile a custom kernel, without the need for svn commands? I'm also skeptical about this.


No, I'm saying that the sources are updated. This is only done if you unpacked the src.txz tarball either during installation or later.


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