# Upgrading from 11.1 to 11.2 kernel question



## kwa71 (Aug 2, 2018)

Hello All,
I was curious as to what happens to the kernel after I upgrade my system. Should I upgrade my system via freebsd-update upgrade first before I compile my kernel? Doesn't the upgrade do away with the old version(s)? TIA --kwa71


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## VladiBG (Aug 2, 2018)

Hello kwa71,

If you are using custom kernel then you can proceed with upgrade from source. The freebsd-update is used for binary upgrade of the generic kernel.

For more information read here:
https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/updating-upgrading.html


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## SirDice (Aug 2, 2018)

kwa71 said:


> I was curious as to what happens to the kernel after I upgrade my system.


Your 11.1-RELEASE-pX kernel will be replaced with a 11.2-RELEASE kernel. 



kwa71 said:


> Should I upgrade my system via freebsd-update upgrade first before I compile my kernel?


Yes. This also begs the question, for what reason are you building your own kernel? Isn't GENERIC working for you? What's missing?


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## kwa71 (Aug 2, 2018)

Yes SirDice my GENERIC kernel is working fine but don't I have to recompile because of my sound? I'm still building my 11.1 release from source so I haven't tested anything yet. TIA --kwa71


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## SirDice (Aug 2, 2018)

kwa71 said:


> my GENERIC kernel is working fine but don't I have to recompile because of my sound?


There are a number of soundcards already builtin and all the others can easily be loaded as a module. So unless there's a specific reason I would suggest just sticking to the standard GENERIC kernel.


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## ShelLuser (Aug 2, 2018)

Also interesting to know; freebsd-update will make a backup of your kernel by default, unless you reconfigured it (see /etc/freebsd-update.conf, the BackupKernel option) so you should be safe either way.


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