[mythtv-users] MariaDB, Arch and Mythtv

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2014 at 3:42 PM, david brooke <david2012brooke at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have reviewed the notice of MariaDB ver 10 being made available in the
> Arch Extra repo. The following is the url:
>
>  https://www.archlinux.org/news/mariadb-100-enters-extra/
>
> In reference to Mythtv, will any manual intervention be needed or will the
> upgrade to MariaDB ver 10 be transparent  to Mythtv? I haven't seen anything
> regarding this issue.

Upgrading to MariaDB v<any> is (mostly) transparent.
However, per the last official statement, the only *supported*
DB server for MythTV is MySQL, although the statement
also said that they the devs would nominally insure that
MariaDB would work (as long as it did not impact
MySQL functionality).  Perhaps, given that most
distros either have, or are, moving to MariaDB as the
default the official position should be to support MariaDB
and to tolerate MySQL (reversing their positions).
But that is outside of scope of your particular question.

To a large extent, the issues/concerns depend on from
what level of mysql/mariadb you are starting from.  In
general, the most important upgrade step is to run
mysql_upgrade.  It will upgrade some internal tables
and structures, and adjust permissions (if required).
Not running that program can result in badness and
surprises (and error messages during startup warning
you that the tables need upgrading).

As always, for any mysql/mariadb upgrade, it is
recommended that you have a *tested* backup
(simply running the backup script does not insure
you have a viable backup).  In fact, you want at
least two tested backups.  Stored on different
media.  Ideally in different geographic locations.
(Ok, this is only TV, so some of this may be
overkill)

<FD> I have been running MariaDB as my MythTV
DB server for a long time.  I have seen no issues
through numerous upgrades.  However, I have played
a DBA on TV, so I have more than a casual experience
with running databases.  Also, since I am running an
unsupported DB, I do not expect anyone to assist
if something bad happens, and I would never be so
foolish as to ask for assistance while running an
unsupported configuration.  If you want to run MythTV
as an appliance, run only supported software such
as MySQL</FD>