Upgrade Mythbackend

[oliver]

I've currently got a mythbuntu 8.10 system installed consisting of a
backend and 4 frontends one of which is an ATV that I managed to get
up and running a few years ago.

My mythbackend is starting to get problems, I believe the hard disk is
failing. Ideally, I would like to upgrade the backend to the latest
mythbuntu and keep the ATV running on 8.10

Has anyone had any success running different version frontends and
backends? I'm really just looking for ways to keep my ATV running
mythtv.

As mythbuntu 8.10 Intrepid is now depreciated I'm wondering how I can
even go about maintaining this system for the next couple of years.
What do you suggest I do.

[oliver]

To answer my own question this is what I ended up doing (of course I
spent way too much time on this but now i have a working mythtv 0.24
on my atv - hooray):
1. installed mythtv-0.24 from sources on my backend
2 installed mythtv-0.24 on my atv from sources
3. installed the 0.24 binaries for mac on my other frontends

I took the following steps to install a working version of mythtv 0.24
on my atv which has mythbuntu hardy installed (not intrepid as
mentioned earlier) with the various drivers and other atv hacks

# get the required apps to build mythtv 0.24 from source
# build-essential - to compile the code
# libmysqlclient15-dev was required to build the qt mysql plugin
# When I got the atv up and running I had some errors in the logs that
gtk2-engines-pixbuf fixed
# The other packages were installed in order to get mythtv 0.24 to
compile for the options I set
sudo apt-get install build-essential liblame-dev xorg-dev python-lxml
gtk2-engines-pixbuf libmysqlclient15-dev

# upgrade alsa-lib
# mythtv needs a version of alsa > 1.0.16 as this isn't available on
the repositories I installed from source

wget http://alsa.cybermirror.org/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.23.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d alsa-lib-1.0.23.tar.bz2
tar -xvf alsa-lib-1.0.23.tar
cd alsa-lib-1.0.23
./configure
sudo make install

# install the latest qt
# mythtv needs at least version 4.5 of qt as this isn't available on
the repositories I installed from source

wget http://get.qt.nokia.com/qtsdk/qt-sdk-linux-x86-opensource-2010.05.1.bin
sudo chmod +x qt-sdk-linux-x86-opensource-2010.05.1.bin
sudo ./qt-sdk-linux-x86-opensource-2010.05.1.bin

# configure your environment so qmake is in path

export QTDIR=/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt
export PATH=$PATH:$QTDIR/bin

echo "QTDIR=/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt
PATH=\$PATH:\$QTDIR/bin" >> ~/.profile

# install the qt mysql module

cd /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql
sudo /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/qmake "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/include/mysql"
"LIBS+=-L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient_r" mysql.pro
sudo make
sudo cp /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql/
libqsqlmysql.so /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/plugins/sqldrivers/

# install mythtv

wget http://www.mythtv.org/download/mythtv/0.24
bzip2 -d mythtv-0.24.tar.bz2
tar -xvf mythtv-0.24.tar
cd mythtv-0.24
./configure --compile-type=release --disable-joystick-menu --disable-
firewire --disable-iptv --disable-hdhomerun --disable-v4l --disable-
ivtv --disable-hdpvr --disable-dvb --with-bindings=perl,python
make
sudo make install

# install mythplugins

wget http://www.mythtv.org/download/plugins/0.24
bzip2 -d mythplugins-0.24.tar.bz2
tar -xvf mythplugins-0.24.tar
cd mythplugins-0.24
./configure --disable-all --enable-mythvideos
make
sudo make install

# install myththemes

wget http://www.mythtv.org/download/themes/0.24
bzip2 -d myththemes-0.24.tar.bz2
tar -xvf myththemes-0.24.tar
cd myththemes-0.24
./configure
sudo make install

# configure the Multimedia > Myth Frontend menu item

cp ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/menu.xml ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/
menu.xml.bak
cp ~/.cache/xfce4/desktop/menu-cache--etc-`whoami`-mythbuntu-xfce4-
desktop-menu.xml.xml ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/menu.xml

# edit file
vi ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/menu.xml
# change
mythfrontend --service
# to
/usr/local/bin/mythfrontend --logfile /var/log/mythtv/mythfrontend.log

# start mythfrontend at login
mkdir ~/.config/autostart
cd ~/.config/autostart

# create new file
vi `whoami`.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=MythTV Frontend
Comment=A frontend for all content on a mythtv-backend
GenericName=MythTV Viewer
Exec=/usr/local/bin/mythfrontend --logfile /var/log/mythtv/
mythfrontend.log
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Icon=/usr/share/mythtv/themes/blue/myth_tv_logo.png
Categories=GNOME;Application;AudioVideo;Audio;Video
X-AppInstall-Package=mythtv

[Richard Nelson]

> cd /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql
> sudo /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/qmake "INCLUDEPATH+=/usr/include/mysql"
> "LIBS+=-L/usr/lib/mysql -lmysqlclient_r" mysql.pro
> sudo make
> sudo cp /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/src/plugins/sqldrivers/mysql/
> libqsqlmysql.so /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/plugins/sqldrivers/

Everything goes well until I get to this point. The line that invokes
qmake gives me a "command not found" response. I took out the line
break. Any suggestions?

Richard

[oliver]

Hi Richard,

Yes sorry for the line breaks, but they were an unexpected consequence
of posting on this list.

It will be necessary to install the mysql driver for qt for mythtv to
work.

I found the instructions here:

http://prres.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/configure-mysql-database-driver-for-qt/

If you are getting command not found find out where qmake is and if it
is installed correctly. I installed it here:

/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/qmake yours may be elsewhere.

Hope this helps.

[oliver]

I should mention that 0.24 mythtv runs much better than 0.21. Even HD
is almost watchable now - it was totally unwatchable previously.

When you get it running on your atv use a slim theme such as
Metalurgy, Media Center or Terra.

[Richard Nelson]

Oliver,

Thanks for your help in getting this working. I had already found out
the hard way about the line breaks working on a previous issue, so
that didn't slow me down at all.:) I did find two minor issues in your
writeup which otherwise worked perfectly.

/opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/bin/qmake was where I found my qmake; I have no
idea how mine ended up there. It probably was something I did along
the way but I have not been able to figure out what it was.

./configure --disable-all --enable-mythvideo is the plugin command
that worked for me; yours had mythvideos.

But the whole thing worked, and has really saved the day for me. My
backend drive borked and that was a good opportunity to upgrade to .
24, and now my atv frontend is working again and everybody is happy. I
agree with your performance assessment too. Thanks very much for the
excellent writeup!

Richard

[Oliver]

Thanks for that. You were right. My qmake was also in the bin directory
and the mythplugin command flag should be --enable-mythvideo. Glad it
worked out for you.

The biggest time waster was trying to edit the menu item in multimedia >
mythfrontend so it would issue the correct command to fire up mythtv

For whatever reason I wasn't able to edit the xfce menu from settings
manager. I got it working by following these obscure directions:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/how-to-edit-xfce-menu-612491/

[James]

On Dec 16, 11:18 pm, Oliver <oliver.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for that. You were right. My qmake was also in the bin directory
> and the mythplugin command flag should be --enable-mythvideo. Glad it
> worked out for you.
>
> The biggest time waster was trying to edit the menu item in multimedia >
> mythfrontend so it would issue the correct command to fire up mythtv
>
> For whatever reason I wasn't able to edit the xfce menu from settings

> manager. I got it working by following these obscure directions:http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/how-to-edit-...

>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Oliver,
>
> > Thanks for your help in getting this working. I had already found out
> > the hard way about the line breaks working on a previous issue, so
> > that didn't slow me down at all.:) I did find two minor issues in your
> > writeup which otherwise worked perfectly.
>
> > /opt/qtsdk-2010.05/qt/bin/qmake was where I found my qmake; I have no
> > idea how mine ended up there. It probably was something I did along
> > the way but I have not been able to figure out what it was.
>
> > ./configure --disable-all --enable-mythvideo is the plugin command
> > that worked for me; yours had mythvideos.
>
> > But the whole thing worked, and has really saved the day for me. My
> > backend drive borked and that was a good opportunity to upgrade to .
> > 24, and now my atv frontend is working again and everybody is happy. I
> > agree with your performance assessment too. Thanks very much for the
> > excellent writeup!
>
> > Richard

Oliver
Great write up. I had figured it out independently but not as
elegantly and with more head scratching! Have you had any luck with
the crystalhd card in 0.24 fixes? It works fine in xbmc on but I get
audio stuttering with the alsa device set as ALSA:hdmi in mythtv. I
am sure its a setting that wrong somewhere. Also, have you tried to
build the trunk? 8.04 sees to have too old a version of python and
when I patched the code in the trunk things wouldn't compile (grrr).
Does your hdmi audio work with alsa 0.23. I have been nervous to
update from the crystalbuntu 0.19. I think it is only the nvidia
driver that cant be updated.
Thanks
James

[Oliver]

> Oliver
> Great write up. I had figured it out independently but not as
> elegantly and with more head scratching! Have you had any luck with
> the crystalhd card in 0.24 fixes? It works fine in xbmc on but I get
> audio stuttering with the alsa device set as ALSA:hdmi in mythtv. I
> am sure its a setting that wrong somewhere. Also, have you tried to
> build the trunk? 8.04 sees to have too old a version of python and
> when I patched the code in the trunk things wouldn't compile (grrr).
> Does your hdmi audio work with alsa 0.23. I have been nervous to
> update from the crystalbuntu 0.19. I think it is only the nvidia
> driver that cant be updated.
> Thanks
> James
>

No, No and No.

I haven't got a crystal card and don't plan on getting one as I don't
want to loose wireless. I also wasn't aware that mythtv even supports
crystal. I also haven't tried building trunk. I haven't been able to get
hdmi audio or analogue audio to work.

I tried following these directions to get hdmi audio to work without
success:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO_install_a_Miminal_Ubuntu_and_XBMC_with_sound_over_HDMI_on_the_AppleTV#Set_the_MAX_CSTATE

Specifically, I wasn't able to get my display working after installing
the NVIDIA 100.14.19 driver. Currently aplay -l shows that the driver
exists but I can't get it to actually work.

[James]

On Dec 17, 6:32 pm, Oliver <oliver.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Oliver
> > Great write up.  I had figured it out independently but not as
> > elegantly and with more head scratching!   Have you had any luck with
> > the crystalhd card in 0.24 fixes?  It works fine in xbmc on but I get
> > audio stuttering with the alsa device set as ALSA:hdmi in mythtv.  I
> > am sure its a setting that wrong somewhere.  Also, have you tried to
> > build the trunk?  8.04 sees to have too old a version of python and
> > when I patched the code in the trunk things wouldn't compile (grrr).
> > Does your hdmi audio work with alsa 0.23.  I have been nervous to
> > update from the crystalbuntu 0.19.  I think it is only the nvidia
> > driver that cant be updated.
> > Thanks
> > James
>
> No, No and No.
>
> I haven't got a crystal card and don't plan on getting one as I don't
> want to loose wireless. I also wasn't aware that mythtv even supports
> crystal. I also haven't tried building trunk. I haven't been able to get
> hdmi audio or analogue audio to work.
>
> I tried following these directions to get hdmi audio to work without
> success:
>

> http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO_install_a_Miminal_Ubuntu_...

>
> Specifically, I wasn't able to get my display working after installing
> the NVIDIA 100.14.19 driver. Currently aplay -l shows that the driver
> exists but I can't get it to actually work.

Thanks for your feedback. I have been unable to get my frontend to
play without stuttering. I have adjusted the number of dma buffers
back to 8 in the driver and now get audio with frozen picture. As a
stop gap I installed the xbmc plugin mythbox and that worlds pretty
well as a frontend. All my recordings play nicely. I would like to
get the frontend running better on the apple tv. If you need any info
on my alsa configuration let me know. I assume you unmuted everything
in alsamixer.