[mythtv-users] MythTV 30.0-dmo4/Debian 10.2 install-migration report.

[A. F. Cano]

Some time ago I migrated MythTV from one machine to another.  These were
the notes I took, with a few recent comments.

Mythtv packages from deb-multimedia, Debian 10.2 completely up-to-date.

Migration procedure:

Copied the /video/mythtv directory from the old system (Debian 9.11/Myth
0.28.2-dmo1+deb9u1) to the new one (Debian 10.2/MythTV 30.0-dmo4)

On the old system:

/usr/share/mythtv/mythconverg_backup.pl -verbose

Moved the backed up DB to the new system (in ~/mythtv)

/usr/share/mythtv/mythconverg_restore.pl --verbose --drop-database --create-database --directory=/home/afc/mythtv/ --filename mythconverg-1344-20200204152415.sql.gz

This ended with:

Successfully restored backup.
Found DBSchemaVer: 1344.

Ran mythtv-setup -w -geometry 1024x768

It said "Warning: MythTV wants to upgrade your database, for the TV schema,
from 1344 to 1350.
Database Host: localhost
Database Name: mythconverg

Clicked on Upgrade.
If the system becomes unstable, a backup is
/video/mythtv/mythconverg-1344-20200204211214.sql.gz

Ran mythtv-setup -w -geometry 1024x768 again.

Security pin (required): 0000 (allows all frontends to connect)  (new setting)

Had to select "master backend is on this host" and re-create the video cards
and link input sources to the 2 tuners (Hauppauge wintv DualHD - moved to the
new machine).

On the old system I only had the default storage group.  Created

Default storage group directory:	/video/mythtv
Live TV storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/livetv
DB backups storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/dbbackups
Videos storage group directory:		/video/mythtv/videos
Trailers storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/trailers
Cover art storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/coverart
Fan art storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/fanart
Screen shots storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/screenshots
Banners storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/banners
Photographs storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/photos
Music storage group directory:		/video/mythtv/music
Music art storage group directory:	/video/mythtv/musicart

At this point the backend wasn't starting so tried something I had to do on
the old system every time Myth got upgraded:

# mysql -u root
MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on mythconverg.* to 'mythtv'@'localhost' identified by 'mythtv' with grant option;
MariaDB [(none)]> grant all privileges on mythconverg.* to 'mythtv'@'%' identified by 'mythtv' with grant option;
MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
MariaDB [(none)]> quit;

It might not have been necessary.  I (regular user) am part of the mythtv
group.  Since then I messed up mariadb in a big way.  I did something that
prevented me from doing anything, not sure what I did but it had to do with
root passwords.  The only solution I could find was to add this to
/etc/mysql/mariadb.cnf

[mysqld]
skip-grant-tables

So things are running again but I know this is not secure.

I now can start the backend from a konsole by typing "mythbackend" but if I
try to start it by:

/etc/init.d/mythtv-backend start

it says "ok" but it doesn't start.

Trying this:

service mythtv-backend start

doesn't start it either.  No feedback at all.

Since then I didn't do anything to try to understand why starting the backend
as a service didn't work.  Then I had to reboot (which happens rarely) and the
backend started just fine in the background.

In some ways the upgrade/migration was easier than I expected, and I'm still
kicking myself for messing up mariadb.  At least Myth is working.

I hope this helps someone.

Augustine