The FreeBSD 14 release is now available. This release brings plenty of new features, packages, modules and well deprecation of several modules. FreeBSD 14 is available for almost all architectures, servers, desktops and is also available via popular Cloud images via commercial providers. You can learn about the new features on this page.
If you are running the earlier FreeBSD 13 series (13.2-P5), here are the steps you may follow to upgrade to FreeBSD 14 release.
Things to do before upgrade
- Before you start the upgrade process, make sure you take backups of your data.
- Do take backups of all the server config files of applications that you are running.
- Also, take backups of /boot/loader.conf, /etc/rc.conf, /etc/resolv.conf, /etc/passwd, /etc/master.passwd.
- Make sure your FreeBSD system is up to date.
- Ensure you have sufficient time and a stable internet connection.
Upgrade to FreeBSD 14
From the terminal, check the version of your current FreeBSD version. It should be 13.
freebsd-version
Run the following command to get the system up to date. Make sure to run the below commands as shown in sequence below and never combine fetch and install. Running fetch and install in a single command may result in post-update failure.
freebsd-update fetch freebsd-update install
pkg update && pkg upgrade
Enter the following command to start the upgrade process. This will download and fetch all the patches for this release. A base 13 release to 14 release needs around 9000+ patches to be downloaded. So, it may take some time.
freebsd-update -r 14.0-RELEASE upgrade
The above command will prompt you for certain confirmations, so don’t leave the system unattended. Press Y or q for vi listing of packages.
After the download is complete, it’s time to merge the changes. You can do that using the below command.
freebsd-update install
When the update prompts you to reboot, do that. And resume the command.
reboot
freebsd-update install
After the above command is complete, run the following commands in sequence to rebuild binary packages.
pkg-static install -f pkg
pkg update
pkg upgrade
Finally, run the update command again to ensure the completion.
/usr/sbin/freebsd-update install
reboot
This completes the upgrade process.
Post update steps
After the system reboots, check the version to see whether you get the latest release.
freebsd-version
Review the log files (/var/log/messages) to see if there are any errors to look for related to services. You also should check application-specific log files as well.
Ensure that all your necessary services (such as ssh, httpd and others) are running based on your setup.
And that’s it.
Cheers.
