Bob Bernstein <poo...@ruptured-duck.com> writes: > Please forgive a history review: > > Initially, I went to install ver. 8.0 on this nvidia-infested system > while it was still running Windows 7, seeking a "dual boot" setup. > No instance of ver 8 that I tried could run on it, complaining about > "panic" over "no console device found." > > The Windows system now is long gone, but I did not find a kernel > that would boot until this was tried: > > NetBSD 7.1.2 (GENERIC.201803151611Z) amd64 > > So that's what I have running now, which may go some way to explain > why am using pkgsrc 2018Q. I am quite willing to try an upgrade to > ver. 8 but my fear is that during the upgrade I will learn once > again that ver. 8 does not boot on this box, but in the process, > have undone the 7.1.2 that to at least runs, short of using X.
NetBSD 7 X11 is definitely old. It may be possible to make things work, but some of the nouveau/drm stuff I think has kernel support (things were simpler with X10 and a QDSS in uVax II!). So, one option is to switch to X11_TYPE=modular and rebuild all packages. That should help. > Can I try the upgrade without harming what's running now? You try the first step, which is what matters. You can boot a netbsd-8 kernel without changing the system on the disk you have. Just drop it in /netbsd8, and then on booting, drop to single user and "boot -s /netbsd8". If that doesn't work, capture info and ask for help - it won't have written anything. If it does, boot multiuser, and if your system is ok, then upgrade the userland bits. Or, boot off cd or a USB stick. As long as you don't overwrite your existing disk, you should be fine.
