[mythtv-users] failure to update database schema to 0.24

[UB40D]

After a distribution upgrade to mythbuntu 11.04 the frontend no
longer starts. The cause I managed to diagnose is that the
upgrade of the database to the format used by mythtv 0.24 has
failed. By searching the list I found this thread
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/473689#473689
from March 2011 confirming that this other thread
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/407793#407793
from November 2009 "is still considered the solution for the
video tables causing a database update to fail". Sensing that I
might be in a similar situation, I tried the same recipe but it
still didn't fix it for me yet. Perhaps my database update
failure is not caused by the video tables. What else should I
try?

Here is what happens when I start the frontend from the command
line, with verbose logging to a file, asking it to upgrade the
database.

~$ mythfrontend -v "important,general" -l mfe-log.txt -u
2011-05-05 08:01:31.092 mythfrontend version: fixes/0.24
[v0.24-251-ga0bb5e9] www.mythtv.org

And here is what ends up in the log:

2011-05-05 08:01:31.111 mythfrontend version: fixes/0.24
[v0.24-251-ga0bb5e9] www.mythtv.org
2011-05-05 08:01:31.112 Using runtime prefix = /usr
2011-05-05 08:01:31.112 Using configuration directory = /home/tv/.mythtv
2011-05-05 08:01:31.134 ThreadPool:HTTP: Initial 1, Max 25, Timeout 60000
2011-05-05 08:01:31.977 Using localhost value of mythhost
2011-05-05 08:01:31.979 Testing network connectivity to '192.168.0.12'
2011-05-05 08:01:32.159 New DB connection, total: 1
2011-05-05 08:01:32.171 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host:
192.168.0.12
2011-05-05 08:01:32.191 Closing DB connection named 'DBManager0'
2011-05-05 08:01:32.195 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host:
192.168.0.12
2011-05-05 08:01:32.204 Current locale EN_GB
2011-05-05 08:01:32.205 Reading locale defaults from
/usr/share/mythtv//locales/en_gb.xml
2011-05-05 08:01:32.488 ScreenSaverX11Private: XScreenSaver support enabled
2011-05-05 08:01:32.492 DPMS is disabled.
2011-05-05 08:01:32.614 Desktop video mode: 800x600 60.317 Hz
2011-05-05 08:01:33.030 Enabled verbose msgs: important general
2011-05-05 08:01:33.065 Loading en_us translation for module mythfrontend
2011-05-05 08:01:33.150 LIRC: Successfully initialized '/dev/lircd'
using '/home/tv/.mythtv/lircrc' config
2011-05-05 08:01:33.151 JoystickMenuThread: Joystick disabled - Failed
to read /home/tv/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
2011-05-05 08:01:33.312 Using Frameless Window
2011-05-05 08:01:33.312 Using Full Screen Window
2011-05-05 08:01:33.921 Using the Qt painter
2011-05-05 08:01:34.803 New DB connection, total: 2
2011-05-05 08:01:34.812 Connected to database 'mythconverg' at host:
192.168.0.12
2011-05-05 08:01:34.822 Current MythTV Schema Version (DBSchemaVer): 1264
2011-05-05 08:01:35.823 ThemeInfo, Warning: Unable to open
themeinfo.xml for
/usr/share/mythtv/themes/BlackCurves-OSD/themeinfo.xml
2011-05-05 08:01:35.824 ThemeInfo, Error: The theme
(/usr/share/mythtv/themes/BlackCurves-OSD) is missing a themeinfo.xml
file.
2011-05-05 08:01:35.875 ThemeInfo, Warning: Unable to open
themeinfo.xml for /usr/share/mythtv/themes/Gray-OSD/themeinfo.xml
2011-05-05 08:01:35.876 ThemeInfo, Error: The theme
(/usr/share/mythtv/themes/Gray-OSD) is missing a themeinfo.xml file.
2011-05-05 08:01:37.266 Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2011-05-05 08:01:37.478 Loading en_us translation for module mytharchive
2011-05-05 08:01:37.655 MediaMonitorUnix::AddDevice() - empty device path.
2011-05-05 08:01:37.657 MediaMonitorUnix::AddDevice() - empty device path.
2011-05-05 08:01:37.658 MediaMonitorUnix::AddDevice() - empty device path.
2011-05-05 08:01:37.663 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x100, gif,jpg,png)
2011-05-05 08:01:37.682 Loading en_us translation for module mythgallery
2011-05-05 08:01:38.215 Current MythMusic Schema Version
(MusicDBSchemaVer): 1017
2011-05-05 08:01:38.414 MonitorRegisterExtensions(0x40,
mp3,mp2,ogg,oga,flac,wma,wav,ac3,oma,omg,atp,ra,dts,aac,m4a,aa3,tta,mka,aiff,swa,wv)
2011-05-05 08:01:38.459 Loading en_us translation for module mythmusic
2011-05-05 08:01:38.627 Current MythVideo Schema Version
(mythvideo.DBSchemaVer): 1011
2011-05-05 08:01:38.628 MythVideo database schema is old. Waiting to
see if DB is being upgraded.
2011-05-05 08:01:39.643 Current MythVideo Schema Version
(mythvideo.DBSchemaVer): 1011
2011-05-05 08:01:40.657 Current MythVideo Schema Version
(mythvideo.DBSchemaVer): 1011
2011-05-05 08:01:41.668 Current MythVideo Schema Version
(mythvideo.DBSchemaVer): 1011
2011-05-05 08:01:41.669 Timed out waiting.
2011-05-05 08:01:41.723 Backing up database with script:
'/usr/share/mythtv/mythconverg_backup.pl'
2011-05-05 08:03:41.149 Database Backup complete.
2011-05-05 08:03:41.162 Backed up database to file:
'/var/lib/mythtv/db_backups/mythconverg-1264-20110505080141.sql.gz'
ICE default IO error handler doing an exit(), pid = 25410, errno = 32

I googled the mysterious message on the last line but got
nowhere. I asked "ps guax" whether there was any process with pid
25410 but there wasn't (maybe it's the one who was "doing an
exit()".

I also noticed the error in the log about being "Unable to open
themeinfo.xml". I checked and indeed I have that directory but it
does not contain that file:

~$ ls /usr/share/mythtv/themes/BlackCurves-OSD
DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf  DejaVuSans.ttf

But on the other hand the same problem was reported in the log of
the Mar 2011 poster who later said things were fixed by the
solution in the other thread. So, based on that, this does not
seem to be the main problem compared to the database upgrade
failure.

Where from here?

Thanks in advance