[mythtv-users] Dumb to "Upgrade"... Re: Program Schedules: working or not? How to (re)configure?

[Douglas Wagner]

Leif:  I know I'm late on this.

It looks to me like what happened is that your download/upgrade of a
package or so went south.  Either the repository isn't updated for all the
proper dependencies or some other something bit your package upgrade in the
butt.  For one second let me apologize if you're not new to
Ubuntu/Debian/Linux/MythTV (you somewhat sound like you are so please don't
get mad if I sound like I'm talking down...I'm definitely not trying to.)

The single largest problem you will EVER have in the linux world is
Upgrading a box.  Whether it's simple package upgrades (what we term in the
windows world as OS Patches) to full OS upgrades, there is ALWAYS a chance
something will go wrong.  The fewer "outside of Ubuntu" packages you use,
the less likely it will happen, but on a Myth box, where you are pulling
from a significant number of repositories and need a significant amount of
software to run the system, you are at least a short step outside of "safe"
when you click the upgrade button.

First, don't let me scare you...as a 20 year RedHat/Fedora/Slackware
veteran (Stephen! Great to see another Veteran that can date back as far as
I can!  Your story sounds EXTREMELY Similar) That's why I love the MythTV
project!) I can tell you that Debian Variants (Ubuntu being one) are
probably the single best at package upgrades I've ever used.  The
likelihood that any one given upgrade on your box is going to go wrong is
pretty slim, but it DOES happen.  The advice above about giving any 30
minute upgrade 3 hours to execute is great and pretty common in the
computer industry: Always take your estimate and multiply by 3 to account
for problems, then double it again to account for the REAL time it will
take you to fix those problems. That's why the standard advice for this
system is, always has been, and ever will remain:  It's an appliance, not a
Linux Box, treat it as such.  Don't do upgrades to your boxes anywhere
close to Sweeps Week / Pemiere week and only do them when you have the time
to really dig in and fix what gets broken.

So enough off the rails lecture here, let me see if I can actually help.
Assuming I'm right and what you do have is a broken update running the
"continue" or "partial" on the updater may very well fix your problem.

If this doesn't do it, I'd recommend getting out of the GUI tools and going
to the command line.

Close your updater box in the GUI and hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 and log in as your
administrative user (not root, whatever you setup when you created the
system).  (NOTE: You MUST Close out the updater box in the GUI for the rest
of this to work...only one application at a time can have a lock on the
package database, and if the system updater in XWIndows has it open,
dpkg/apt-get can't get it.  If this happens, you'll get text spit back at
you that another process has a lock on the package database and / or an
error message something to the effect of "Can't obtain a lock on the
package Database" when running the commands below)

Your first order of business is to re-execute the Update to see what broke
and see if it gets fixed with a second run.  apt-get/dpkg (the system
updater) is great at fixing it's own problems...especially if those
problems came just from a failed download (package dropped bits coming down
the wire, etc.).  You'll want to run "sudo apt-get upgrade" to see what it
spits back at you.  If you try any other installations (sudo apt-get
install  <package name>) you'll likely get a message from apt-get/dpkg that
you're in the middle of an installation already and you must complete that
installation before you can run another one.  If you get error messages
spit back at you, feel free to post them, more people can help at that
point.

Assuming the sudo apt-get upgrade doesn't fix things, there are a couple
more easy steps to run.  First, I'd try "sudo apt-get update" which will
update all of your package sources repositories and their local
cache...this can often help fix things by bringing packages that your
system updater didn't know existed back into it's visibility...generally
when you run into dependency problems, this is the fix.

Once you've run update, run another "sudo apt-get upgrade" and see if that
does the trick.  If not there's one more thing to try "sudo apt-get
dist-upgrade".  The dist-upgrade option pulls in additional packages that
may or may not have been flagged for upgrade.  I really don't know why this
is (as I said, I'm a Fedora/RedHat guy playing with Ubuntu, not an
Ubuntu/Debian expert), but dist-upgrade is a more "full featured" upgrade
to the system than just running apt-get upgrade is.

With all of these steps (sudo apt-get upgrade, sudo apt-get update, sudo
apt-get dist-upgrade) run, if you are STILL not working, the likelihood is
one of two things:

1) There's a broken dependency in the Repository Distro somewhere.  This
happens when a package is updated and thrown out to the repositories
without the dependent packages being updated and thrown onto the
repository.  This is rare, but I think we've all seen this happen a time or
two.  In this case, your only real option is to wait...at worst (and often
way before this) within 24 to 48 hours the dependencies are typically fixed
and your upgrade (once run again) will succeed this time.

2) Something REALLY borked up during the application of the upgrade.  In
this case you may have more work on your hands.  You'll want to look up
some information on dpkg (the underlying package manager:  apt-get is to
dpkg what yum is to rpm in the RedHat world)..

Basically when you do a list of packages (dpkg -l) you'll notice the first
column of the listing is the status column and most of the packages will
show "ii" in that column (two lower case "eyes").  Anything NOT showing two
lowercase "I"s is a potential problem.  This is where you'll need to do
some research on DPKG and what those statuses mean since there are other
status's that are fine for certain packages (for instance I think there's a
status for a package that is no longer needed but not uninstalled...I could
be wrong here).

If you can properly remove those packages and re-run your upgrade (I
haven't had to do this, I don't know the success rate, but this is where
I've had to go with administrating RedHat systems in the past) that may
also fix the problem...though I would definitely seek help before doing ANY
package removals...unless it's blatantly obvious what those removals will
do and that they will fix the problem. (NOTE from Experience:  If you ever
get into a "removal" place, always keep a list of what packages are being
removed: ESPECIALLY the dependent packages...many of them may be able to be
re-installed after the removal).

In any case, if you get this far and things still aren't working for you,
post back whatever information you're getting and we'll see what we can do.

--Illydth


On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 11:30 PM, Stephen P. Villano <
stephen.p.villano at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On 9/24/13 11:26 PM, Leif Pihl wrote:
> > On Sep 24, 2013, at 9:02 PM, Eric Sharkey wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 9:56 PM, Leif Pihl <leif at pihl.us> wrote:
> >>> Huh.  Cntrl-Printscreen-B has  ZERO  effect.
> >> I'm losing my memory.
> >>
> >> It's alt-printscreen-b, not control-printscreen-b which will reboot the
> system.
> >>
> >> Eric
> >> _______________________________________________
> > oh.
> > Well, the "head kick" did the trick.
> > Rebooted, watched my show,
> > THEN checked Ubuntu Control Panel, to see if it wanted to add any more
> updates.
> >
> > THEN went into Update Manager.
> > It said something to the effect of:
> >    NOT ALL UPDATES CAN BE INSTALLED   (my caps, it used boldface)
> >    To run a partial update... yada yada yada....
> > Then two buttons:  Partial Upgrade  and  Close
> >
> > The other screen showed the fourteen upgrades; here's a list, including
> my typos and shorthand
> > Note that the "v: is a checked box and a "_" is an unchecked box:
> >
> > [v]  Python wrapper around the OpenSSL library
> > [v]  Other updates (LP-PPA-mythbuntu-xmltv)   <<== Boldface
> > [v]  Perl libraries related to the SM....
> > [v]  Functionality related to the SM...
> > [v]  Graphical user interface related to the SMLTV....
> > [v]  Ulilities reelated to the SMLTV file format for TV listing
> > [v]  Other updates (LP-PPS-mythbuntu-testing)
> > [v]  Mythbuntu Bare Client
> > [v]  Mythbuntu diagnostic utility
> > [v]  Other updates (LP-PPA-mythbuntu-0.27)     <<==  Boldface
> > [v]  A python library to access some MythTV features
> > [v]  A PERL Library to access some MythTV features
> > [_]  Image gallery/slideshow add-on module for MythTV
> > [_]  Music add-on module for MythTV
> > [v]  Personal video recorder application (client and server)
> > [_]  Personal video recorder application (server)
> > [v]  Metapackage to setup and configure a "Master Backend" profile of
> MythTV
> > [_]  Personal video recorder application (common data)
> > [v]  Personal video recorder application (database)
> > [_]  Persoanl video recorder application (client)
> > [v]  The Mythbuntu MythTV Theme
> > [_]  Utilities used for transcodeing MythTV tasks
> > [_]  Web interface add-on module for MythTV
> > [v]  PHP Bindings for MythTV
> >
> >
> > I did _NOT_ click either one of the buttons:   [Upgrade}  and  [Close],
> > as of this writing, it's just sitting there waiting.
> >
> >
> > Comments?
> >
> >
> > p.s.:
> > BTW, I _DID_ get into the Backend settings and unclick the "EIT".
> > I also ran the database filler (can't remember the name), the schedule
> data STILL looks below-par.
> >
> >
>
> I "rent" my "free" lookups and it takes a long time for the schedule to
> come down.
> I'd also run the additional updates, lest a mixed version update bite
> you in the ass.
>
> I started with Mythbuntu 12.04, upgraded from 0.25 to 0.26, then shortly
> to 0.27 as the fixes were more rapid due to the development plan, which
> looks rather good.
> I've had hiccups in each version, ranging from mythweb not able to play
> a video (present with 0.26 fixes until I went 0.27) to mobilemyth giving
> me an error that I have yet to explore due to time constraints.
>
> The simple question is, do you want a mythtv new version recorder
> talking to your older version backend?
> Small hint, only if you like to masturbate with a cheese grater. Both
> are fraught with somewhat equal peril.
> One, with a shredded member, the mythtv not recording isn't very good
> either in your family entertainment center situation.
>
> For those who object to the colorful language, such teach the audience
> in a way that won't be forgotten. I've used Sea Monkeys as a metaphor
> for those learning water petrification, erm, purification via chlorine,
> IV administration to infantry via different off color metaphor, more
> goes on as one teaches.
> The idea is the undesirability of mixed versions.
>
> With that, I sign off for the night.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://www.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20130925/28d0661f/attachment.html>