# Does the i386 12.1 install actually work?



## vmb (Feb 29, 2020)

I am trying to install FreeBSD 12.1 on a x86-32 bit host with a 1Ghz VIA CPU that has previously been running 10.x, 11.x and 12.0 successfully. However, whatever 12.1 installer that I download fails to install. Failure is mostly during the boot process just after drive detection.

I have downloaded the i386 12.1 in dvd1, disc1, memstick multiple times including the .xz versions.
I have verified the sha256 checksums OK every time before creating the media.
I have burned optical media in two separate drives, no problem creating the discs or mounting them on another system, I just can't boot them beyond the installer's drive detection. Memstick is even worse, won't boot at all. I tried three different flash drives with the same result.
The machine is BIOS, no EFI.

Just to prove to myself that my hardware is OK. I downloaded the i386 version of OpenBSD 6.6 (openbsd66.iso), burned it, booted it, installed it. The host is now currently running OpenBSD as a result.

Has anyone successfully installed 12.1 i386 on a real 32-bit only host?


----------



## bookwormep (Feb 29, 2020)

To be honest, same has happened to me on my i386 boxes on past major version installations.
What I did was to use the last "good" (booting) version have it installed; then run:
code: # freebsd-update -r 12.0-RELEASE upgrade

Then, I would make sure it worked okay. Then upgrade again to the 12.1-RELEASE.


----------



## vmb (Mar 1, 2020)

I would really like to get FreeBSD back on my i386 host. As you suggest, I will try the upgrade process if I can install an older memstick release.


----------



## vmb (Mar 3, 2020)

I have spent an entire day trying to get an in-place upgrade to work. I don't think I have ever seen freebsd-update successfully upgrade to a release version. I have lost count at how many times it has failed to complete. 

The upgrade should download around 9500 files and mine is now persistently unable to fetch the last 515 for some reason unknown to me. I have wasted another day trying to get an in-place upgrade of FreeBSD to work. It is incredible that I can hold in my hand a DVD containing all the files that I need for the upgrade but there is no published upgrade process that will apply them from that DVD. Perhaps I should set aside time to develop one.

I have decided to keep my old machines on 12.0 until EOL. I will assume that the 12.1 i386 install remains unusable for my 32-bit machines. My only option forward with FreeBSD is to build a private update server and hope that it works better than updates over the internet. Failing that, OpenBSD 6.6 works well on i386.


----------



## vmb (Mar 4, 2020)

I guess this has now become an urgent issue for me. I caught up with reading the security scan emails this morning and I noticed that 12.0p13 went EOL four days ago on 29 February. I am currently building a private update server with the hope that it will enable me to complete an in-place release upgrade for the first time.


----------



## drhowarddrfine (Mar 4, 2020)

fwiw, I have a personal server that I've been updating for six years that's i386 but on a x86_64 VPS and have had no issues updating all this time.


----------



## vmb (Mar 6, 2020)

I am glad to hear that the official upgrade process does actually work for some people. I wish I could be one of the fortunate. 

I have been trying to build a private update server for FreeBSD but even that is proving troublesome. I found hard coded multi-core dependencies and undocumented migration to SHA512 in the server code. A dual core 32-bit machine with only 1GB RAM and 7GB of swap cannot complete the build process.

My current plan is to do the upgrade on a reference VM and use 'ZFS send' to distribute updated filesystems to the actual hosts.


----------



## vmb (Mar 6, 2020)

I tried the official method of doing an in-place upgrade again and got the same failure.

`sudo freebsd-update -r 12.1-RELEASE upgrade
Password:
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 3 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 12.0-RELEASE from update1.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.

The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed:
kernel/generic world/base world/doc

The following components of FreeBSD do not seem to be installed:
kernel/generic-dbg world/base-dbg

Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y

Fetching metadata signature for 12.1-RELEASE from update1.freebsd.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Fetching 1 metadata patches. done.
Applying metadata patches... done.
Fetching 1 metadata files... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Fetching files from 12.0-RELEASE for merging... done.
Preparing to download files... done.
Fetching 307 patches... done.
Applying patches... done.
Fetching 515 files... failed.`


----------

