SOLVED Manual downgrade of FreeNAS 10.2 to 9.10 via cli

[sysfu]

log in as root via SSH and run:

freenas-update -T FreeNAS-9.10-STABLE update

 

[m0nkey_]

This is a perfect example on how not to do things. If you have upgraded to 10 from 9.3, you can boot into a previous environment at the grub boot loader menu.

If you have royally screwed up, it's safer to re-install.

 

[sysfu]

In this particular situation:

• physical access to the unit was quite inconvenient
• unit had no configuration or drive pool data worth preserving
• no previous boot 9x boot environment existed

Note: Those of you doing this probably want to reset to factory defaults after the reboot.

@m0nkey_ Keep up the inspirational replies!

 

[m0nkey_]

So it was a blank slate? You should really test on a system that has configuration, data, etc. I'd be interested in the result.

 

[cyberjock]

You still shouldn't do this. The configuration file will be from v10, which is NOT compatible with v9. Just a bad idea. If you need to go backwards, either you choose an older boot environment or you do a fresh install.

It may work today, and it may work tomorrow. But one day you'll go to do something and the WebGUI will throw some error that basically means "your config is corrupt". It won't be corrupt, but because the required entries and structures are missing, the system will assume it is.

Just don't do this. It's not a good option at all.

 

[sysfu]

@m0nkey_ That's correct, while technically it wasn't a blank slate to begin with, scorched earth for this server was just fine.

I remain unimpressed with all the hang wringing and finger wagging. Has been working like a champ.

My understanding is that FreeNAS 9x will regenerate the factory config file by itself if you delete it.

Or you can do it manually:
python manage.py syncdb --noinput --migrate

The older way was to copy over the factory config like so

% cd /data
% cp factory-v1.db freenas-v1.db
% reboot

 

[m0nkey_]

Or you can do it manually:
python manage.py syncdb --noinput --migrate

That bug was filed over 4 years ago. It's actually a slight miracle that it works today.

Keep doing what you're doing for experimental purposes (it's fun!), but I certainly would not be putting any of it in production.