有没有办法使用freebsd-update将7.4-RELEASE-p5升级到7.4-RELEASE-p12？
bash-4.2# freebsd-update upgrade -r 7.4-RELEASE-p12 Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 5 mirrors found. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE from update4.freebsd.org... done. Fetching metadata index... done. Inspecting system... done. The following components of FreeBSD seem to be installed: kernel/generic src/base src/bin src/cddl src/contrib src/crypto src/etc src/games src/gnu src/include src/krb5 src/lib src/libexec src/release src/rescue src/sbin src/secure src/share src/sys src/tools src/ubin src/usbin world/base world/dict world/doc world/games world/info world/lib32 world/manpages world/proflibs The following components of FreeBSD do not seem to be installed: world/catpages Does this look reasonable (y/n)? y Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE-p12 from update4.freebsd.org... failed. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE-p12 from update5.freebsd.org... failed. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE-p12 from update6.freebsd.org... failed. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE-p12 from update2.freebsd.org... failed. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE-p12 from update3.freebsd.org... failed. No mirrors remaining, giving up. bash-4.2# uname -a FreeBSD XX.XXXXX.org 7.4-RELEASE-p5 FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE-p5 #0: Fri Dec 23 17:36:54 UTC 2011 [email protected]:/usr/obj/usr/src74/sys/GENERIC amd64 bash-4.2# 如果你参考freebsd-update上的FreeBSD手册信息，你会在一个大的灰色框里看到下面的注释（被添加的重点）：
二进制更新适用于安全团队当前支持的所有体系结构和发行版。 在更新到新版本之前，应该审查其发布公告，因为它包含与该版本相关的重要信息。 发布公告可从http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/获得 。
如果您参考FreeBSD Security Team的主页面，您会看到FreeBSD 7.x不再是“受支持的版本”，并在2013年2月达到了生命的尽头 。
因此，无法使用freebsd-update和FreeBSD项目的官方服务器来更新这个系统。
您的select：
升级到FreeBSD的支持版本。
（说实话，这是你应该做的，停止阅读，并计划升级。）
升级老式的方式，使用源代码
如果您拥有足够大的环境来certificate它是正确的， 请为7.x系列运行您自己的FreeBSD更新服务器 。
@ voretaq7：实际上我能够将我的FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE-p5更新到最新的7.4-RELEASE-p12，具体如下： 24.2。 FreeBSD更新 。 （ freebsd fetch && freebsd install ）。
# freebsd-update fetch Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 5 mirrors found. Fetching metadata signature for 7.4-RELEASE from update6.freebsd.org... done. Fetching metadata index... done. Inspecting system... done. Preparing to download files... done. The following files are affected by updates, but no changes have been downloaded because the files have been modified locally: /var/db/mergemaster.mtree No updates needed to update system to 7.4-RELEASE-p12. WARNING: FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE-p9 HAS PASSED ITS END-OF-LIFE DATE. Any security issues discovered after Fri Mar 1 00:00:00 UTC 2013 will not have been corrected. # freebsd-update install No updates are available to install. Run '/usr/sbin/freebsd-update fetch' first. #