# 11.3 --> 12.3



## DaveQB (Dec 4, 2022)

I have an 11.3 server that slipped through the cracks. Besides not getting into this situation, any advice or anything major I need to be aware of making the upgrade from 11.3 --> 12.3? I had a look through the first 14 pages of this forum (~12 months) for anything with 11.3 in the title but nothing. I might be the first to try this.

Thank you.


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## VladiBG (Dec 4, 2022)

Here's my notes about the kernel





						UPDATING - src - FreeBSD source tree
					






					cgit.freebsd.org
				



read:
20210729
20190507
20181110

If you are using UEFI check the size of your ESP if it's big enough as you will need to manually update / copy the loader.efi into it as BOOTx64.efi because  some old installation which were based on efifat image was too small and you will need to reformat and create a new msdosfs for ESP.


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## smithi (Dec 4, 2022)

DaveQB said:


> I have an 11.3 server that slipped through the cracks. Besides not getting into this situation, any advice or anything major I need to be aware of making the upgrade from 11.3 --> 12.3?



I briefly had 11.3 installed on a laptop, but just saved /etc and /boot settings then did a fresh 12.3 install, so no direct advice except it's a big step.



DaveQB said:


> I had a look through the first 14 pages of this forum (~12 months) for anything with 11.3 in the title but nothing. I might be the first to try this.



Should have worked from 24 or 36 months ago.  However any day now, maybe as soon as tomorrow, 12.4-RELEASE will be available so I'd at least wait for that ...


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## DaveQB (Dec 5, 2022)

VladiBG said:


> Here's my notes about the kernel
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks. Looks like only 20190507 will apply to me.



VladiBG said:


> If you are using UEFI check the size of your ESP if it's big enough as you will need to manually update / copy the loader.efi into it as BOOTx64.efi because  some old installation which were based on efifat image was too small and you will need to reformat and create a new msdosfs for ESP.


Great, thanks. Not UEFI (old HP micro server).




smithi said:


> I briefly had 11.3 installed on a laptop, but just saved /etc and /boot settings then did a fresh 12.3 install, so no direct advice except it's a big step.



Bugger. I was going to just give it a go. I am more hesitant now 
Thanks for the warning.



smithi said:


> Should have worked from 24 or 36 months ago.  However any day now, maybe as soon as tomorrow, 12.4-RELEASE will be available so I'd at least wait for that ...


Wouldn't upgrading to 12.3 be less bumpy than upgrading to 12.4? Or do you mean the 12.4 release will draw more people to the conversation that will be trying to upgrade from 11.3?

Thanks!


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## richardtoohey2 (Dec 5, 2022)

Have you got a spare machine or a VM that you can set up with 11.3 and try an upgrade to 12.3 (or 12.4)?

Might give you some idea of what's involved.

I can't remember my 11.x to 12.x upgrades, but certainly 12.x to 13.x has been fine (just servers, though, no X or desktop applications).


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## DaveQB (Dec 5, 2022)

http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/
Oh I just found this. Couldn't I use this to upgrade through the versions to get this up to date?


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## DaveQB (Dec 5, 2022)

richardtoohey2 said:


> Have you got a spare machine or a VM that you can set up with 11.3 and try an upgrade to 12.3 (or 12.4)?
> 
> Might give you some idea of what's involved.
> 
> I can't remember my 11.x to 12.x upgrades, but certainly 12.x to 13.x has been fine (just servers, though, no X or desktop applications).


Great idea. I think I'll do that if using using http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/ is not viable.


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## smithi (Dec 5, 2022)

smithi said:


> I briefly had 11.3 installed on a laptop, but just saved /etc and /boot settings then did a fresh 12.3 install, so no direct advice except it's a big step.





DaveQB said:


> Bugger. I was going to just give it a go. I am more hesitant now
> 
> 
> 
> ...



No, you're far better advised by those who have done it; I haven't so don't be put off.

As long as you have backups that make a fresh install viable, you've nothing to lose by trying the major version jump.



smithi said:


> However any day now, maybe as soon as tomorrow, 12.4-RELEASE will be available so I'd at least wait for that ...





DaveQB said:


> Wouldn't upgrading to 12.3 be less bumpy than upgrading to 12.4?



I wouldn't think so, but again I haven't done a major version upgrade via freebsd-update.



DaveQB said:


> Or do you mean the 12.4 release will draw more people to the conversation that will be trying to upgrade from 11.3?



No, I just meant to save an extra step soon.

cheers, Ian


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## SirDice (Dec 5, 2022)

DaveQB said:


> Wouldn't upgrading to 12.3 be less bumpy than upgrading to 12.4?


Why would it? 



DaveQB said:


> Or do you mean the 12.4 release will draw more people to the conversation that will be trying to upgrade from 11.3?


No, by the time you're done upgrading the system to 12.3, 12.3 will be EoL and you will have to do yet another upgrade. May as well go with 12.4 directly. You need to be aware that 12.3 will be end-of-life three months after the release of 12.4. And 12.4 will be released some time soon.

I've upgraded a ton of machines from 11.x to 12.x, never had an issue. As long as you don't have any fancy custom changes to the base OS the upgrade should be fairly painless. But as with _any_ upgrade, make sure you have backups.


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## astyle (Dec 5, 2022)

Yeah, considering that 12.3 is newer than 13.0  (https://www.freebsd.org/releases/)


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## DaveQB (Dec 6, 2022)

SirDice said:


> Why would it?



My thinking was a closer version would equal less changes thus less to go wrong. 11.3 --> 12.3 is less of a jump than 11.3 --> 12.4. Then upgrade 12.3 --> 12.4. In other words, more "gradually" upgrade the system.




SirDice said:


> I've upgraded a ton of machines from 11.x to 12.x, never had an issue. As long as you don't have any fancy custom changes to the base OS the upgrade should be fairly painless. But as with _any_ upgrade, make sure you have backups.



This gives me confidence. I have been thinking about this upgrade. This server runs everything off of jails (ZFS). The host OS only does NFS sharing.

And there's no process to use *ftp-archive.freebsd.org* to install the in between versions?

Thanks for the reply SirDice


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## SirDice (Dec 6, 2022)

DaveQB said:


> My thinking was a closer version would equal less changes thus less to go wrong.


The "big" jump is between major versions. Minor version jumps aren't that big (can't change the ABI within a specific major version release).



DaveQB said:


> This server runs everything off of jails (ZFS).


Upgrade the host first. It's fine to have 11.3 jails running on 12.x but you can't run a 12.x jail on a 11.x host.


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## smithi (Dec 6, 2022)

DaveQB said:


> My thinking was a closer version would equal less changes thus less to go wrong. 11.3 --> 12.3 is less of a jump than 11.3 --> 12.4. Then upgrade 12.3 --> 12.4. In other words, more "gradually" upgrade the system.



In addition to
SirDice's
premium guidance, and of course Chapter 25.2 of the Handbook:









						Chapter 25. Updating and Upgrading FreeBSD
					

Information about how to keep a FreeBSD system up-to-date with freebsd-update or Git, how to rebuild and reinstall the entire base system, etc




					docs.freebsd.org
				




I found, linked unobtrusively from the busy 12.4-RELEASE announcement:









						FreeBSD 12.4-RELEASE Announcement
					

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.




					www.freebsd.org
				




This compact and apparently thorough page:

"For instructions on installing FreeBSD or updating an existing machine to 12.4-RELEASE please see:"

https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/12.4R/installation

which indicates one fetch / install cycle first to update your current version (11.3 -> 11.4?) and then the major upgrade '-r 12.4', if I'm reading it right.

HTH, Ian


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## DaveQB (Thursday at 4:51 AM)

FYI for anyone following along at home, the upgrade proceeded without error. I did a `pkg upgrade` after, which ultimately worked without problems. FreeBSD impresses me again.

Thanks everyone.
Now to upgrade the system's basejail.....


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