The first FreeBSD 12.3-PRERELEASE snapshots are finally available. This means we can try them in a new ZFS Boot Environment without touching out currently running 13.0-RELEASE system. We can not take the usual path with creating new BE from our current one and upgrade it to newer version because 12.3 has older major version then the 13.0 one.
This is kinda a paradox in the FreeBSD release process that when released the 12.3-RELEASE will have some newer commits and features then older 13.0-RELEASE which was released earlier this year. Of course not all things that have been committed to HEAD goes into 12-STABLE or 13-STABLE automatically – but most of them do. Only the biggest changes will be limited only to 14.0-RELEASE – of course probably somewhere in the middle of 2022 when it will be having its release process.
One note about ZFS filesystem on FreeBSD. People often confuse ‘real’ ZFS Boot Environments with its trying-to-be substitutes like BTRFS snapshots or snapshots used by Ubuntu with zsysctl(8) command. Unfortunately they are only snapshots and are not full writable clones (or entire separate ZFS datasets). They can freeze your system in time so you will be able to get back to working configuration after updating packages for example – but You will not be able to install other separate version of a system as other ZFS dataset making it another independent ZFS Boot Environment.
Create New ZFS Dataset
host # beadm list BE Active Mountpoint Space Created 13.0.w520 NR / 12.8G 2021-09-14 17:27 13.0.w520.safe - - 1.2G 2021-10-18 10:01 host # zfs list -r zroot/ROOT NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT zroot/ROOT 12.8G 96.8G 88K none zroot/ROOT/13.0.w520 12.8G 96.8G 11.6G / zroot/ROOT/13.0.w520.safe 8K 96.8G 11.1G / host # zfs create -o mountpoint=/ -o canmount=off zroot/ROOT/12.3 host # beadm list BE Active Mountpoint Space Created 13.0.w520 NR / 12.8G 2021-09-14 17:27 13.0.w520.safe - - 1.2G 2021-10-18 10:01 12.3 - - 96.0K 2021-10-18 13:14
Install FreeBSD 12.3-PRERELEASE
host # beadm mount 12.3 /var/tmp/12.3 Mounted successfully on '/var/tmp/12.3' host # beadm list BE Active Mountpoint Space Created 13.0.w520 NR / 12.8G 2021-09-14 17:27 13.0.w520.safe - - 1.2G 2021-10-18 10:01 12.3 - /var/tmp/12.3 96.0K 2021-10-18 13:14 host # curl -o - https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/amd64/12.3-PRERELEASE/base.txz \ | tar --unlink -xpf - -C /var/tmp/12.3 % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 173M 100 173M 0 0 1889k 0 0:01:33 0:01:33 --:--:-- 2228k host # exa -1 /var/tmp/12.3 bin boot dev etc lib libexec media mnt net proc rescue root sbin tmp usr var COPYRIGHT sys host # curl -o - https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/amd64/12.3-PRERELEASE/kernel.txz \ | tar --unlink -xpf - -C /var/tmp/12.3 % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed 100 43.3M 100 43.3M 0 0 1733k 0 0:00:25 0:00:25 --:--:-- 1663k host # exa -lh /var/tmp/12.3/boot/kernel/kernel Permissions Size User Date Modified Name .r-xr-xr-x 37M root 2021-10-14 06:31 /var/tmp/12.3/boot/kernel/kernel host # curl -o - https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/amd64/12.3-PRERELEASE/lib32.txz \ | tar --unlink -xpf - -C /var/tmp/12.3 host # exa -ld /var/tmp/12.3/usr/lib32 drwxr-xr-x - root 2021-10-18 13:45 /var/tmp/12.3/usr/lib32
Install Same Packages as on Host
With the pkg prime-list we will get all installed by hand pkg(8)packages from our currently running system. You may omit this section or just install packages that you need instead all of them.
host # pkg prime-list > /var/tmp/12.3/pkg.prime-list host # chroot /var/tmp/12.3 /bin/sh (BE) # export PS1="BE # " BE # mount -t devfs devfs /dev BE # sed -i '' s/quarterly/latest/g /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf BE # pkg install -y $( cat pkg.prime-list ) Bootstrapping pkg from pkg+http://pkg.FreeBSD.org/FreeBSD:12:amd64/latest, please wait... Verifying signature with trusted certificate pkg.freebsd.org.2013102301... done Installing pkg-1.17.2... Extracting pkg-1.17.2: 100% Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue... Fetching meta.conf: 100% 163 B 0.2kB/s 00:01 Fetching packagesite.pkg: 100% 6 MiB 1.3MB/s 00:05 Processing entries: 100% FreeBSD repository update completed. 31294 packages processed. All repositories are up to date. Updating database digests format: 100% pkg: No packages available to install matching 'chromium' have been found in the repositories pkg: No packages available to install matching 'drm-fbsd13-kmod' have been found in the repositories pkg: No packages available to install matching 'geany-gtk2' have been found in the repositories pkg: No packages available to install matching 'ramspeed' have been found in the repositories pkg: No packages available to install matching 'vim-console' have been found in the repositories
As we can see some of the packages that we have installed in the FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE system are not currently available in the ‘latest‘ pkg(8) branch for the FreeBSD 12.3-PRERELEASE system. This sometimes happens when the build of such package will fail – but you may assume that such package will be available in a week or so as that is the period in which pkg(8) packages are (re)build in the ‘latest‘ branch.
We will now remove the missed packages and also rename some packages that may have different names for 12.x version of FreeBSD.
BE # sed -i '' \ -e s/drm-fbsd13-kmod/drm-kmod/g \ -e s/geany-gtk2/geany/g \ -e s/vim-console/vim-tiny/g \ pkg.prime-list BE # pkg install -y $( cat pkg.prime-list | grep -v -e chromium -e ramspeed ) Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue... FreeBSD repository is up to date. All repositories are up to date. The following 1072 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked): New packages to be INSTALLED: (...) Number of packages to be installed: 1072 The process will require 11 GiB more space. 2 GiB to be downloaded. (...) BE # rm pkg.prime-list
After hour or so later our packages have been installed.
BE # pkg stats
Local package database:
Installed packages: 1073
Disk space occupied: 11 GiB
Remote package database(s):
Number of repositories: 1
Packages available: 31294
Unique packages: 31294
Total size of packages: 96 GiB
Copy Configuration Files
You can now reboot to plain and unconfigured FreeBSD system but you may as well copy your configuration files from your current working installation. These are the files I have copied.
First files from the Base System /etc and /boot places.
host # for I in /boot/loader.conf \
/etc/hosts \
/etc/fstab \
/etc/rc.conf \
/etc/sysctl.conf \
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf \
/etc/jail.conf \
/etc/devfs.rules \
/etc/resolv.conf
do
cp "${I}" /var/tmp/12.3/"${I}"
echo "${I}"
done
/boot/loader.conf
/etc/hosts
/etc/fstab
/etc/rc.conf
/etc/sysctl.conf
/etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
/etc/jail.conf
/etc/devfs.rules
/etc/resolv.conf
Now the files for installed packages under /usr/local/etc dir.
host # for I in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/* \
/usr/local/etc/X11/xdm/{Xresources,Xsetup_0} \
/usr/local/etc/automount.conf \
/usr/local/etc/sudoers \
/usr/local/etc/doas.conf \
/usr/local/etc/zshrc
do
cp "${I}" /var/tmp/12.3/"${I}"
echo "${I}"
done
/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/card.conf
/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/flags.conf
/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/keyboard.conf
/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/touchpad.conf
/usr/local/etc/X11/xdm/Xresources
/usr/local/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0
/usr/local/etc/automount.conf
/usr/local/etc/sudoers
/usr/local/etc/doas.conf
/usr/local/etc/zshrc
Add Users and Set Passwords
You should now add your regular user and set passwords for both your user and root account.
BE # pw useradd vermaden -u 1000 -d /home/vermaden -G wheel,operator,video,network,webcamd,vboxusers BE # passwd root BE # passwd vermaden
Reboot Into New ZFS Boot Environment
You may now exit the chroot(8) of that ZFS Boot Environment and reboot. In the FreeBSD loader(8) menu select the 12.3 boot environment.
BE # exit host # umount /var/tmp/12.3/dev host # beadm unmount 12.3 Unmounted successfully host # beadm list -D BE Active Mountpoint Space Created 13.0.w520 NR / 11.3G 2021-09-14 17:27 13.0.w520.safe - - 11.1G 2021-10-18 10:01 12.3 - - 9.5G 2021-10-18 13:14 host # shutdown -r now
Testing New System
The 12.3-PRERELEASE system started fine for me. I was able to login and use system as usual. One important thing to note … the ZFS pools. I have another newer ZFS pool with zstd compression enabled … and I was not able to import that ZFS pool as FreeBSD 12.3-PREELEASE does not use OpenZFS 2.0 but an older FreeBSD in-house ZFS version.
# zpool import data This pool uses the following feature(s) not supported by this system: org.freebsd:zstd_compress (zstd compression algorithm support.) com.delphix:log_spacemap (Log metaslab changes on a single spacemap and flush them periodically.) org.zfsonlinux:project_quota (space/object accounting based on project ID.) org.zfsonlinux:userobj_accounting (User/Group object accounting.) cannot import 'data': unsupported version or feature
Keep that in mind … but you can also install newer OpenZFS from the FreeBSD Ports and this is what we will now do.
# pkg install -y openzfs openzfs-kmod Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue... FreeBSD repository is up to date. All repositories are up to date. The following 2 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked): New packages to be INSTALLED: openzfs: 2021090800 openzfs-kmod: 2021090800 Number of packages to be installed: 2 The process will require 22 MiB more space. 4 MiB to be downloaded. [1/2] Fetching openzfs-2021090800.pkg: 100% 3 MiB 975.3kB/s 00:03 [2/2] Fetching openzfs-kmod-2021090800.pkg: 100% 1 MiB 591.2kB/s 00:02 Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting) [1/2] Installing openzfs-kmod-2021090800... [1/2] Extracting openzfs-kmod-2021090800: 100% pkg: Cannot open /dev/null:No such file or directory [2/2] Installing openzfs-2021090800... [2/2] Extracting openzfs-2021090800: 100% ===== Message from openzfs-kmod-2021090800: -- Amend /boot/loader.conf as follows to use this module: - change zfs_load="YES" to NO - change opensolaris_load="YES" to NO - add openzfs_load="YES" - (for ARM64) add cryptodev_load="YES" ===== Message from openzfs-2021090800: -- Ensure that any zfs-related commands, such as zpool, zfs, as used in scripts and in your terminal sessions, use the correct path of /usr/local/sbin/ and not the /sbin/ commands provided by the FreeBSD base system. Consider setting this in your shell profile defaults!
We will now have to modify our /boot/loader.conf file.
host # beadm mount 12.3 /var/tmp/12.3 Mounted successfully on '/var/tmp/12.3' host # chroot /var/tmp/12.3 BE # cp /boot/loader.conf /boot/loader.conf.ZFS BE # vi /boot/loader.conf BE # diff -u /boot/loader.conf.ZFS /boot/loader.conf --- /boot/loader.conf.ZFS 2021-10-19 10:57:04.180732000 +0000 +++ /boot/loader.conf 2021-10-19 10:57:23.992145000 +0000 @@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ # MODULES - BOOT geom_eli_load=YES - zfs_load=YES + zfs_load=NO + openzfs_load=YES # DISABLE /dev/diskid/* ENTRIES FOR DISKS kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable=0 BE # shutdown -r now
After reboot and trying again I was able to import that newer ZFS pool.
Hope that you will find that guide useful.
Feel free to add your suggestions.
UPDATE 1 – Notes When Installing Newer Version
This guide was written when I tried FreeBSD 12.3 on a previously used by FreeBSD 13.0 system so bootcode was not needed to be updated. I just tried 13.1 on the same 13.0 system and these two steps are needed to updated the bootcode.
UEFI
For UEFI partition you will need to copy /boot/loader.efi file from the 13.1 installation which means /var/tmp/13.1 dir. Here is the command to be used.
host # gpart show -p ada1 => 40 250069600 ada1 GPT (119G) 40 409600 ada1p1 efi (200M) <== UEFI BOOT PARTITION 409640 1024 ada1p2 freebsd-boot (512K) <== BIOS BOOT PARTITION 410664 984 - free - (492K) 411648 2097152 ada1p3 freebsd-swap (1.0G) 2508800 247560192 ada1p4 freebsd-zfs (118G) 250068992 648 - free - (324K) host # mount_msdosfs /dev/ada1p1 /mnt host # cp /var/tmp/13.1/boot/loader.efi /mnt/efi/boot/bootx64.efi
BIOS
For the systems that boot in legacy/BIOS mode you will use this gpart(8) command instead.
host # cd /var/tmp/13.1/boot host # pwd /var/tmp/13.1/boot host # gpart bootcode -b ./pmbr -p ./gptzfsboot -i 2 ada1 partcode written to ada1p2 bootcode written to ada1
As FreeBSD often is installed as BIOS+UEFI boot capable both of these steps would be needed.
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