[mythtv-users] My upgrade from 32-bit Mythbuntu 12.04 to 64-bit 14.04

[Will Dormann]

Hi folks,

Based on the feedback to my prior question, I've decided that I'd give a
clean install with database restore a shot.  First, before beginning a
thing, I did a full "bare metal" backup as outlined here:
http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2014-March/361370.html
I also did an explicit database backup.

I upgraded the RAM to 4GB before proceeding, as I didn't think that 2GB
with some dedicated to video would cut it with a 64-bit system.  After
doing a (custom) clean install using the same partition structure, here
is what I needed to do to get back up and running:

1) Rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf.<date> to xorg.conf
Without this (i.e. *no* xorg.conf), the fonts are too large.
2) Drop mythtv database and restore from backup.  After, I noticed that
the mythconverg_restore.pl has an option to drop the database (and
create the new one) in one shot.
3) rename /etc/lirc to /etc/lirc.orig and restore /etc/lirc from backup
4) rename ~/.lirc to ~/.lirc.orig and restore ~/.lirc from backup
5) rename ~/.mythtv to ~/.lirc.orig and restore ~/.mythtv from backup
6) After reboot, enter the new database password (from
/etc/mythtv/config.xml )when prompted
7) compile and install 6200ch  http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/6200ch
Mythbuntu doesn't come with this.  If it's deprecated, I don't know what
its replacement is, and 6200ch works for me.
8) Get ATI TV 600 USB firmware:
http://www.linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATI/AMD_TV_Wonder_HD_600_USB#Firmware
Linux doesn't come with the firmware for this device (licensing issue?).
 I also configured mythbackend setup to only open this device on demand.
 This seems to behave better for me.

That's about it.  It was much less painful than I ever expected.  The
system seems to work fine, except I've noticed that the xfce4 panel is
sometimes visible after booting.  Restarting the machine or even just
lightdm seems to fix it sometimes.   Does anybody know how to prevent this?

One of the things that I noticed immediately is the increased
performance.  The system just seems snappier.  Given that there were
several changes that happened at the same time, it could be one of
several things.   I wouldn't have expected any of these individual
aspects to make a noticeable difference, so maybe it's even a
combination of things:
1) Ubuntu 14.04 is faster than 12.04 ?
2) 64-bit Ubuntu is faster than 32-bit ?
3) 4GB Ubuntu is faster than 2GB Ubuntu, even if there's no swapping ?


-WD