[mythtv-users] Upgrade process guidance/tips pls - starting from Ubuntu 16.04LTS, myth .28

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 13:12:11 -0400, you wrote:

>Hi there,
>
>Since I still have my health and some unplanned time at home I realized a
>potential project could be bringing my mythtv system up to date.
>
>Past experience tells me there will be hiccups but that upgrades go much
>better than decades past. Past experience also tells me that there might be
>upgrade paths with higher likelihood of success, and with less cursing!
>
>I'll give some background on where I'm at. If anyone has suggestions for a
>sequence of upgrades, or gotchas to avoid I would be very grateful.
>
>The system started as a mythbuntu install and has been upgraded a few
>times. I did have to start from scratch once, but the database could be 10+
>years old.
>
>   - Ubuntu 16.04LTS with mythtv 0.28 fixes
>   - HDHomeRun connected to OTA antenna
>   - HDPVR for cable TV capture
>   - MCEUSB remote & IR blaster; blaster driving a Scientific Atlanta cable
>   box with a channel changer script
>   - Combined frontend/backend connected to TV; using mobo Intel graphics
>   with VAAPI
>   - 2 Apple TV 4 with the proprietary MythTV app from the App store
>   (hasn't been updated for years, but works)
>   - Macbook which I've never really got working with any pre-compiled
>   builds of Mythfrontend, but it would be a nice bonus if a more recent
>   release of mythtv had stable OSX frontend support
>
>Let me know if there's any more info I can provide.
>
>Thanks in advance for anything you can share.
>
>Cheers,
>Andrew

You might like to find the thread where I posted about my 16.04 to
18.04 upgrade.  There was a long list of niggly things that I had to
fix, but the major one is that the lirc package, as installed in
18.04, is badly broken.  It is a packaging problem (several different
problems actually), not problems with the lirc code itself.  As well
though, it is a major upgrade of the lirc code, so things work
differently and you will need to set up your configuration again under
the new system.  As you are using a blaster, that is likely to be a
problem as I do not know how to make the new lirc version work with
blasters.  For the rest, you will need to run my fix script for the
packaging problems:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/lirc-ubuntu-18.04-install.sh

and I can tell you how to configure the IR receiver.  Or you can just
find the old threads here where that has already been discussed.
Searching for "lirc-ubuntu-18.04-install.sh" will likely find the
correct threads.

So I think that if at all possible, you need to try setting up a new
18.04 install on that PC to work out the lirc setup before you
consider upgrading.  The way I normally do that is to have a separate
bootable partition where I can install new versions and try them.  My
main SSD has two partitions so I can do this, and a couple of my hard
drives also have bootable partitions.  If you do not have another
bootable partition suitable for this, you can create one on a drive by
using gparted to resize existing partitions to create the necessary
space.  Or just temporarily add a new bootable drive.

If your MythTV box is quite busy, it may be difficult to find enough
time between recordings for having it booted to a different system.
You can use my gaps program to tell you when there is a big enough gap
in your recordings.  I think for 0.28 you will need the old gaps 1.3
version, and the Utilities.py package:

http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/gaps-1.3
http://www.jsw.gen.nz/mythtv/Utilities.py

Put them in /usr/local/bin and rename gaps-1.3 to gaps.