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OpenBSD Installation and Upgrading Installing and upgrading OpenBSD.

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Old 26th February 2013
shep shep is offline
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Default Updating Bootloader

On an older laptop that was running current my screen started going blank after an update. The keyboard would also lock. Initially I thought the laptop video had finally died but I could still get into the bios. I tried Debian and it still worked.

I then recalled seeing something on the mailing lists about new boot code causing a problem - so I did a new install that worked. The boot loader version had incremented from 3.17 to 3.19.

I have two other machines running current and was wondering if there was a way to update the boot loader only? I will backup before trying. In the past the second current machine was used as a test machine. If the update worked I would synch my personal files with ftp (haven't gotten around to learning/setting up rsynch) and then update the main system.

To the question: Is it possible to update the boot code only?

Last edited by shep; 26th February 2013 at 10:44 PM. Reason: grammer
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Old 27th February 2013
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jggimi jggimi is offline
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Assuming you're booting amd64 or i386, the procedure would be:
  1. Backup your root directory. Have alternate boot media capability in the event of finger fumbles.
  2. Extract /usr/mdec files from the latest snapshot's base53.tgz fileset, and install in your own /usr/mdec, replacing the files there.
  3. Copy the newer second stage bootloader /usr/mdec/boot to your root directory.
  4. Install the newer first stage bootloader /usr/mdec/biosboot using installboot(8). If you've never used it before, you point to the second stage bootloader and the first, and your boot drive (sd0, wd1, etc.). Use the man page for guidance.
Example:

# /usr/mdec/installboot -v /boot /usr/mdec/biosboot sd0

Last edited by jggimi; 27th February 2013 at 01:21 AM. Reason: typo in the installboot command.
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Old 27th February 2013
shep shep is offline
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@jggimi

Thanks

I'll try it on the test machine first and if successful synch it to my primary computer. The tackle the primary computer.

If I don't mess up this should save alot of time and bandwidth.

Addendum: The instructions worked well although the files in my /usr/mdec directory were upto date. I still went ahead downloaded base53.tgz and extracted the mdec files . I "diff"'d the existing /usr/mdec files with the extracted files and they were identical. I ran installboot on the test machine for the experience and ended up with OpenBSD/amd boot v 3.23 which is the boot version my main computer is using.

Thanks again

Last edited by shep; 27th February 2013 at 08:41 PM. Reason: Report Success
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