[mythtvnz] Mythbuntu 16.04 user experiences

[Stephen Worthington]

On Mon, 18 Jul 2016 13:07:59 +1200, you wrote:

>Hi All
>
>Those who have already updated to Mythbuntu 16.04,how is it going?I noted  
>that people where experiencing problems,initially.
>I'm thinking of upgrading when 16.04.1 comes out shortly.
>
>-Paul

If you have not already upgraded to MythTV 0.28, it would be sensible
to do that first on your current system, if possible.  Then do the OS
upgrade separately.

One problem I have found with my testing of 16.04 so far is that the
new version of mysql is using the editline library (from FreeBSD?)
instead of the readline library in its utility programs.  Since I use
the SQL command line quite a bit, that is a serious problem for me as
editline does not do the right sort of things for bringing back
commands out of my command history for me to re-use.  So on my test
box, I replaced mysql with MariaDB, which still uses readline and is
going to keep doing so.

Apparently Oracle have a problem with the GPL (or is it LGPL) license
and are trying to remove all such software from mysql, so they will
not be going back to readline, despite the bug reports filed about
this problem.  So it is unlikely I will ever be using mysql again as
this problem is a deal breaker for me.

Fortunately, MariaDB seems to work just fine as a replacement for
mysql.  It is now the default database in Fedora anyway, and no one
seems to be complaining about problems.  Swapping to it was far from
easy though, as the process results in uninstalling of the MythTV
packages before the change can happen.  And the mythexport package
seems to be built with the wrong dependency, as it requires the real
mysql packages and wants to uninstall MariaDB and reinstall mysql if
you try to install it.  I need to file a bug report with the Mythbuntu
maintainers about that.

So if you want to switch to MariaDB also, make sure you have a good
backup of your MythTV database.

I am still debating with myself about whether I will be upgrading in
place from 14.04 to 16.04.1 when it comes out, or whether I will move
my database over to a new 16.04.1 install.  I have done both types of
upgrade in the past, and there are problems and benefits for both
paths.  At least I now have an ultra-fast SSD drive to boot from, so
the upgrade process will be able to be done in the available time
between recordings - my MythTV box is pretty busy most days, but there
is usually one or two days a week with a gap of 8 hours or so between
recordings.  Without the SSD, I am not sure if 8 hours would be enough
to safely do a full upgrade.