New ๐ญ๐๐ฆ ๐๐ผ๐ผ๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ป๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฑ [ZFS Boot Environments Explained] article on vermaden.wordpress.com blog.
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/11/25/zfs-boot-environments-explained/
#verblog #beadm #bectl #dataset #desktop #freebsd #laptop #pool #server #zfs
@vermaden I very much enjoyed this. Itโs there an up-to-date resource covering boot environments at boot time? With 15โs release, itโs going to be in demand. Also for would-be coverts, itโs a great thing to show off. I know you had a great post on this, but it seems out of date now (?).
I got two environments working, but in still not sure I did it right / grokked the algorithm.
Thanks.
> Itโs there an up-to-date resource covering boot environments at boot time?
I am not sure what you need here - can You try to describe it in different words/sentences?
@vermaden I am running 14 โ current. I want to try out 15.
What do I need in order to have a boot environment for each of those kernels and userlands so that I can try the new thing out โฆ and revert if things get bad
You may of course went a little more 'Solaris' way with first creating new ZFS BE and then making there an upgrade like in these:
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2021/10/19/other-freebsd-version-in-zfs-boot-environment/
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2021/02/23/upgrade-freebsd-with-zfs-boot-environments/
... and if you are creating new PKGBASE based ZFS BE - then new bsdinstall(8) can be helpful here:
```
root@pkgbase:~ # export BSDINSTALL_CHROOT=/jail/NEW
root@pkgbase:~ # env TERM=xterm bsdinstall pkgbase --jail
```
I did not yet used that for new ZFS BE so check twice if you also installed the FreeBSD kernel and other needed parts with pkg(8).
There is also a source build to PKGBASE road documented on the https://wiki.freebsd.org/pkgbase FreeBSD Wiki ... but I did not tested that one also.
From what I have checked they are documented.
The binary freebsd-update(8) way.
The build from source way.
The PKGBASE way.
Here:
vermaden
Steven G. Harms