[mythtv-users] Upgrade MythBuntu 12.04 32-bit to 14.04 64-bit?

[Will Dormann]

Hi folks,

I've been running a 32-bit version of MythBuntu because I have about
1.5GB of RAM usable in my system (512MB reserved for video).  I recently
ran into the dreaded "NVRM: os_schedule: Attempted to yield the CPU"
hang.  I thought I fixed it by adjusting the vmalloc
<http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Common_Problem:_vmalloc_too_small>
parameter, but apparently it can still happen.   Once in a few months is
still too often for me.

Anyway, I've got a 4GB set of RAM on the way and I figure it may be time
to migrate to a 64-bit version of Mythbuntu.   I've heard that an
in-place upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit is a bad idea
<http://users.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/hobbies/debian_arch_up/index.html>,
but what I'm wondering is if I upgrade from 12.04 to 14.04, can I switch
from 32-bit to 64-bit at the same time?   Or is that an even *worse*
idea than the above-described switch from 32 to 64?

I was able to do an upgrade install directly from 10.10 to 12.04 with
very little trouble, so I'm feeling sort of lucky.   Obviously, I'll
have a bare-metal disaster recovery backup before proceeding.  But
before I give it a go, has anybody else attempted such a switch?   And
if so, are there any special caveats I should be aware of?

The reason I'm looking to do an upgrade is that I've made a number of
OS-level tweaks over the years, and I'd sort of like to retain those, as
opposed to doing a clean install and Mythtv database restore.


Thanks!
-WD