[mythtv-users] upgrading from mythbuntu 14.04/0.27 to 0.28 vs. mythbuntu 16.04 install

Sun Nov 27 12:29:33 UTC 2016

On 11/26/2016 08:56 PM, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Nov 2016 22:19:39 +0000, you wrote:
>
>> I have about 500GB of recorded TV on my mythbuntu 14.04 backend on version 0.27 of mythtv. I'm ready to upgrade to 0.28.
>>
>> I'm trying to pick the best way.
>>
>> I know I can use MCC and change the repository from 0.27 to 0.28 and do an upgrade in place (making sure I have a current backup of the database).  I could then do a "do release upgrade" and bring the OS to 16.04.
>>
>> Is that better than doing a fresh install of mythbuntu 16.04.1??  I'm worrying about restoring the 0.27 database backup to 0.28 after I install 16.04 from scratch?  I have my recording on 2 separate disk that will not be erased by a fresh install.
>>
>> Thoughts on how to do this right?
>>
>> Jim A
> The 0.27 to 0.28 change is relatively painless.  I recommend doing
> that first, then running like that for a while before contemplating
> the 14.04 to 16.04 upgrade, which is a lot more complicated.  All you
> really need to worry about with 0.27 to 0.28 is to make sure you have
> a good backup before you start, so you can change back again if
> necessary. And, of course, leaving yourself enough time to change back
> again before your next recording time, if there are serious problems.
> By a good backup, I mean both a database backup (copied to a different
> partition), and a full backup of the boot/system partition(s).  I use
> a clonezilla live image boot to make image backups of my boot
> partition.  It is faster, simpler and safer to just restore an image
> backup of your system if the upgrade fails than to mess around with
> uninstalling 0.28 and reinstalling 0.27.
>
> To do the 14.04 to 16.04.1 upgrade, I would recommend that you have
> two bootable partitions so you can keep your old 14.04 running on one
> partition while experimenting with 16.04.1 on the other partition.
> There are plenty of problems you can run into, mostly related to the
> change to using systemd.  If your setup is quite simple (no external
> access to MythTV from other boxes, no network tuners), then the
> upgrade could be straightforward.  But if you run other frontends or
> have network tuners, then you will have problems and will need extra
> time to play around with things until they are really right.  If you
> do not have an spare boot partition to do this with, and have not
> fitted an SSD boot drive, then now is a good time to do that - SSD
> prices are very reasonable now.  That would allow you to have the old
> system running from your old boot drive and test things on the new SSD
> install.
>
> To do the upgrade, the choice of upgrading in place or a new install
> really depends on the history and complexity of your setup.  I chose
> in the end to upgrade in place, but I did it by copying my 14.04 setup
> to my new SSD using gparted, and upgrading the copy.  I have two boot
> partitions on my SSD so I was able to run 14.04 from there initially,
> while I tried out 16.04 on the other partition, and waited for 16.04.1
> to be released.  When 16.04.1 came along, I did the upgrade of the
> 14.04 SSD partition.
>
> While testing with the new 16.04 boot partition, I discovered just how
> much customisation I had on my system, which lead me to choose to do
> the upgrade-in-place option.  In the past, upgrading in place has
> failed sometimes, leaving me with no alternative but to start again
> with a new install, but this time it worked reasonably well, barring
> all the complications introduced by the systemd change.
>
> To clone using gparted, I recommend doing it using a CD or USB boot of
> the 16.04.1 live image.  If I remember correctly, gparted is not
> installed on the image, so your network needs to be set up so that it
> will give a DHCP address to the live image boot to allow the "apt
> install gparted" command to work from the live boot.  Or you can use a
> boot image such as the clonezilla one that has gparted pre-installed.
> To support SSDs properly, it is best to use a recent version, based on
> 16.04, if possible, which will have the latest gparted.  Older
> versions may not recognise some SSDs, especially NVMe ones.
>
> Warning: If you clone a boot partition, you *must* change the new
> partition's UUID, or grub will boot from both partitions at once,
> getting some things from the new partition and some from the old.
> Gparted has the ability to change the UUID when you do the cloning.
> And you can meet up with a grub bug where it will put the old UUID in
> the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file in the config for the new partition.  So
> when you run update-grub after cloning the partition (or it gets run
> automatically), you need to manually check the new grub.cfg file
> entries for the new partition and edit them if necessary.  Change any
> UUID values in the new partition's section that reference the old
> partition so that they are all the same and the correct value for the
> new partition.  I think you only have to do this once and the bug does
> not occur again after that - it seems that grub copies things from old
> grub installs it finds and that is how this bug happens.  So once it
> has a grub.cfg in place for itself on the new install, it does not
> copy from older configs and the bug does not happen again.
>
> Some more information about your current system setup would help in
> advising how to proceed and what the possible problems may be.  In
> particular, what tuners are you using?  Do you have a way of using a
> different boot partition?  Are you using external frontends, or just
> one combined backend/frontend box with no external access?  Do you use
> SQL commands from the command line?  Is the MythTV box also serving
> other functions (eg nameserver, mail server, web server)?  Do you have
> any familiarity with systemd, or will you be learning about it from
> scratch?
Here's some of the additional info about my setup as you requested:
1. In my production mythtv system I use a HDHomeRun Connect as the first 
2 tuners and a PCIe Hauppauge HVR-2250 for my 3rd and 4th tuner.  When I 
build test mythtv systems, I just shutdown the production and let the 
test system use the HDHomeRun Connect.
2. My production system is Core i5 system with Mybuntu 14.04(64bit) 
installed on an SSD(/dev/sdc) with EFI boot. My media drives are 
balanced between 2 Hard Drives (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1. Keeping the 
UUIDs staight is a pain, if you reformat, but I will not be in this 
case. Currently mythtv 0.27.
3. The production mythtv box is dedicated and while it's can be a 
frontend, it's mostly a backend for every other device in the house.
4. I only use SQL to fix permissions of the mythtv user.  It never seems 
to get installed correctly so there is a GRANT ALL command I have to use 
on any fresh install.
5. Mythtv box is dedicated.
6.  I don't know what systemd is except as a new and improved init system.

I think that covers the questions you asked.

Basically I've always started with mythbuntu and built a list of things 
to fix during the install. I document this so I can repeat it when 
required.  I'll do the same for this upgrade once I get it right.  My 
current doc is at: http://mythtvinstall.blogspot.com/

That might give you insight into the level I'm familiar with on mythtv 
installs.

Thanks,

Jim A

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