# Disadvantages of running 8.3 kernel on FreeBSD 8.2 system



## vecihi (Jan 17, 2013)

hello,

I know for UPDATING it's not correct way, but 8.2 system works with 8.3 kernel and I want to know;

What are specific disadvantages that I can see clearly, running 8.3 kernel on FreeBSD 8.2?

What are user land tools that not match with 8.3 kernel on FreeBSD 8.2 system...?


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## SirDice (Jan 17, 2013)

Don't mix and match versions. Update the whole system or don't update at all.


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## wblock@ (Jan 17, 2013)

Why would you want to do this?


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## vecihi (Jan 17, 2013)

*I* have *a* custom distribution working on FreeBSD, it is *an* internal project... there are too many machines running on 8.2 with ZFS 4-15, *I'* m planning to update only the kernel for new device driver support and new zfs drivers.

*S*o *I* wanted to know what you guys think about that.

*T*hank you for answers.


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## kpa (Jan 18, 2013)

Don't do it. The world and kernel can have unexpected dependencies with each other. The userland utilities like ifconfig(8) may depend on data structures that are very specific to the version of the OS and are not interchangeable between different versions of FreeBSD.

When booting a newer kernel (e.g. 8.3) with older world (e.g. 8.2.) it is guaranteed that you can boot in single user mode to perform make installworld to update the world and update the configuration files with mergemaster(8) Anything else is undefined and unsupported.


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## SirDice (Jan 18, 2013)

Update the whole system. You do not have to upgrade your ZFS if you don't want to. ZFS is backwards compatible.


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