Overview

• New tool: Vermaden introduces pkgbase-update(8), a BSD-licensed utility designed to simplify FreeBSD base-system upgrades using PKGBASE.
• Motivation: FreeBSD 15.x is the final major version supporting the traditional freebsd-update(8) mechanism.
• FreeBSD 16.0: PKGBASE is intended to become the exclusive method for installing and updating the FreeBSD base system.
• Main objective: Provide a familiar, straightforward interface resembling freebsd-update, avoiding complicated manual package-management procedures. 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗

Why the Tool Was Created

The official FreeBSD 15.2-BETA1 upgrade instructions require multiple manual operations:

• Updating the pkg package manager.
• Creating temporary repository configurations.
• Upgrading FreeBSD base-system packages and kernel modules.
• Updating the EFI bootloader manually.
• Checking .pkgnew configuration files.
• Cleaning temporary files and rebooting.

Vermaden considered this process unnecessarily complicated and developed pkgbase-update in approximately 2–3 hours.

Available Commands

The tool provides a simplified interface around the existing PKGBASE infrastructure.

Demonstrated Upgrade

Vermaden demonstrates upgrading FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE → 15.2-BETA1 using:

pkgbase-update upgrade -r 15.2-BETA1

Key observations:

• The package manager upgrades from pkg 2.6.2_1 to 2.8.4.
• The upgrade processes 213 FreeBSD base-system packages.
• The tool handles the base-system upgrade and checks the kernel-module repository.
• It checks for .pkgnew configuration files requiring manual review.
• An interactive confirmation remains for package upgrades rather than automatically accepting every action.

After rebooting, freebsd-version -kur reports:

15.2-BETA1
15.2-BETA1
15.2-BETA1

This confirms that the installed userland and running kernel match the intended release. 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗

Availability and Limitations

• Open source: Available on GitHub — vermaden/pkgbase-update.
• License: BSD.
• Development stage: First public release.
• Automation: Most upgrade operations are simplified, but some user confirmation and configuration review remain necessary.
• Validation: The article demonstrates one successful upgrade scenario, not comprehensive testing across different hardware and configurations.

https://github.com/vermaden/pkgbase-update