Don't feel bad. I've used FreeBSD for a long time but still find it kinda confusing when the "same" command has different effects depending on system state. Hec

Don't feel bad. I've used FreeBSD for a long time but still find it kinda confusing when the "same" command has different effects depending on system state. Heck even I got it wrong since I forgot it's actually three steps — install the new kernel and reboot into it, install the new userland and reboot into that, reinstall packages, and then remove the old userland: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.0R/installation/#upgrade https://www.freebsd.org/releases/13.0R/installation/#upgrade On the plus side it's super-easy to recover since even if your `pkg` is broken there's a `pkg-static`: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg-static&sektion=8&n=1 https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg-static&sektion... A `pkg-static bootstrap -f && pkg upgrade -f` would probably sort that system out if you ever end up in that state again :)