[mythtv-users] 0.22 database upgrade woes

[Dale Pontius]

Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 02/20/2010 09:08 PM, Dale Pontius wrote:
>> I tried to take the 0.22 plunge today.
>>
>> I'm a Gentoo user, so I was well warned about the possibilities of full
>> or partial corruption.  Of course I hoped for the best, and was of
>> course disappointed.  I was flagged as having partial corruption.
>>
>> So I followed all of the relevant instructions, dropped the database,
>> restored the provided blank database, then restored mine on top of it,
>> and of course backed it up.
>>
>> Following this, I attempted 0.22 mythtv-setup.  It upgraded my database,
>> saving a backup first.  Then it launched into configuration, which I
>> expected, from the instructions.
>>
>> When all is said and done, it has lost all of my recorded programs, my
>> old recorded programs, etc, etc.  It's as if I had started completely
>> from scratch.  Nor was there any warning that it was going to object to
>> the old content, or that it was throwing stuff away.  I've also taken a
>> dump of the new database, and verified that indeed all of the old
>> content is gone.
>>
>> I was prepared for the worst, so right now I'm on my way back to 0.21,
>> hoping that there's something I can do to make this work right, next
>> time.  There is another Gentoo user who has made a script that attempts
>> to fix partial corruption, but it "knows" that it failed.  I'm giving
>> feedback to the author, in case it can be improved.
>>
>> Google hasn't been my friend on this one, but if there are any other
>> suggestions, I'm listening.  I guess I can always give up and start
>> over, but I'd rather not.
>>    
> 
> There's no possible way Myth can "object to the old content or ... throw
> stuff away."  You didn't restore your database on top of the blank
> database--instead, you just upgraded the blank database.
> 
> You need to do a partial restore of your database on top of the blank
> database.  You also need to verify that doing so is successful.  Use
> --verbose when doing the restore of the blank database and the partial
> restore of your database.  Once both steps succeed, then upgrade your
> database.
> 
I can certainly try it again, and at some point I plan to.

But aside from saying that I followed the instructions, my gzipped dumps
of mythconverg have been typically running in the 6-8 MB range.  When I
ran mythtv-setup to convert the database, it first tucked a backup in
/media.  That backup is 8.2 MB, consistent with the sizes I've been
seeing.  I copied it to /tmp, gunzipped it, and looked at it with a text
editor.  It has extensive tables for "oldrecorded" and "recorded", to
key on the two I looked at.  That's the dump mythtv-setup made, not one
of my own.  As stated in the directions, I also backed up the database
after following the partial restore instructions.  That backup is also
8.2MB.  Oddly enough, the 2 backups are not the same size - mine is
8280985 bytes and the mythtv-setup one is 8280967 bytes.  I'm not sure
if that is significant.  Nor do I know how large the blank database is.
 Had I simply upgraded the blank database I would not have expected to
see my oldrecorded and recorded content in the automatic pre-upgrade backup.

I also backed the database up after running mythtv-setup and
mythfilldatabase.  That backup is 2012169 bytes.

As I said, I can certainly try it again, but at this point I'll need to
find another decent gap in my recording schedule.

Dale Pontius