MB + CPU replacement

[mururoa]

Hi there,
I'm gonna change motherboard + CPU on my computer soon.
From A64 X2 + nForce 4 to C2D + nVidia 680i SLI.
I hope I wont have to reinstall FreeBSD after that.
Outside network interfaces and sound chip what should I configure/prepare before final shutdown to have no problem booting after the change ?

[Carpetsmoker]

I hope I wont have to reinstall FreeBSD after that.

Only if you change architecture (i.e. amd64, i386, sparc64).

Outside network interfaces and sound chip what should I configure/prepare before final shutdown to have no problem booting after the change ?

The only thing I've ever had problems with is when my disk numbering changed (i.e. ad2 instead of ad0), so you will want make sure you use the same connector as before (But even if you don't, it's no disaster, you can change it in singe-user mode).
Other than this, no preperation is needed.

[mururoa]

Architecture remain the same, i386.
But print sample of fstab is a good point so I can reorder the disks in case of.

[graudeejs]

What was your previous CPU?
If you had intel cpu, and your BSD box was build with optimizations for it....
switching to AMD, might (but not necessary) break some things

[phoenix]

If you use a custom kernel, you may want to build/install a GENERIC kernel before doing the transition. That way, it's pretty much guaranteed to work, and you can build a new custom kernel after finding all the hardware drivers/modules needed.

If you have CPUTYPE defined in /etc/make.conf, you may need to rebuild the world before doing the transition, if it's set to anything other than i686 or p3. A system built with CPUTYPE=athlon* may have issues running on a P4/Core CPU.

[mururoa]

I have a pretty generic kernel but I had to build a new kernel.
Unfortunatly I dont remember exactly why but I will look in make.conf.
Anyway I'm sure it was not just for optimisation and that I didnt set the CPUTYPE myself.

[mururoa]

Ok, change made.
A64 X2 + Nforce 7150 Chipset to C2D + P45 Chipset.
And the result was EASY
All changes I had to make was select the right root partition under mountroot and then edit fstab accordingly and that's all !
Ok I must admit I cheated a little plugging the same network card on the new MB but, hey, that was allowed

[Carpetsmoker]

And the result was EASY

Told you

At work I have a hard disk with a FreeBSD installation, I use it as a ``LiveCD'' to fix PCs sometimes, the difference being it's much faster and that I can install apps, copy stuff to HDD if needed etc.

[DrJ]

I do the same, CS. I have one 20GB IDE drive that I use for this purpose.

In fact, I used to do new installs on my fastest machine, and then move over the disk to the target machine. They all have basically the same parts.

[ephemera]

I use a 8G usb flash for this purpose. Its very handy.

[mururoa]

Oh one more thing.
I had a 6th sense using the old network card as the new integrated network chipset is not supported for now by FreeBSD
The MB is Asus P5Q and Asus provides drivers for windows and linux only.