[SOLVED] Fresh load of Mythtv 0.29 on Ubuntu 18.04 database failed to start

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martynbottomley
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Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:53 pm
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[SOLVED] Fresh load of Mythtv 0.29 on Ubuntu 18.04 database failed to start

Post by martynbottomley »

I had Mythtv 0.28 working fine on Ubuntu 16.04. After updating Ubuntu to 18.04 my system was deemed unstable and so I formatted my hard disk and loaded Ubuntu 18.04 from USB stick

I have followed the Mythtv installation instructions but have been unable to get Mythtv 0.29 to work on this new build with a Mythtv startup status of "Waiting for database to start", changing to "Database failed to start"

I have reloaded Ubuntu maybe 20 times and tried various methods to load Mythtv but to no avail

I have updated all the software to the latest versions. I have tried everything that I can think of including changing the Mythtv database password to that in /home/mythtv/.mythtv/config.xml but have exhausted my knowledge

I am at my wits end and hoping that someone on the forum could advise what tests I could run to identify why Mythtv 0.29 will not work --- any help would be appreciated!
Last edited by martynbottomley on Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
MikeB2013
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Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2016 4:16 pm
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Re: Fresh load of Mythtv 0.29 on Ubuntu 18.04 database failed to start

Post by MikeB2013 »

I use the following to install mythtv 29 (or 30-pre master) on a clean install *Ubuntu 18.04, after which you can restore any previous mythconverg database backup if required.

Everything is done in a terminal session.

First make sure Ubuntu 18.04 is up to date

Code: Select all

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade # if necessary
Now install mythtv (client/server) from mythbuntu ppa (has latest version)

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mythbuntu/0.29
sudo apt update  # not really necessary it is done for you in 18.04 , but does no harm
sudo apt install mythtv 
sudo adduser $USER mythtv # needed as 18.04 does not have gksu, bug has been reported
mkdir -p $HOME/.mythtv   # this and next line avoids "Cannot Login to database" message in mythtv-setup
ln -s -f /etc/mythtv/config.xml ~/.mythtv/config.xml
You need to logout or reboot at this point for "sudo adduser $USER mythtv" to take effect.
Note the mythtv password is in file /etc/mythtv/config.xml if you ever need it.

Due to various issues you need to use systemctl commands in a terminal session to stop mythtv-backend before running mythtv-setup and to start mythtv-backend after running mythtv-setup.
The systemctl commands are :
sudo systemctl stop mythtv-backend
sudo systemctl start mythtv-backend

Note after running mythtv-setup for the first time, systemd will have "failed" mythtv-backend service (restarting too many times) so reboot or run

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start mythtv-backend

martynbottomley
Junior
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:53 pm
Great Britain

Re: Fresh load of Mythtv 0.29 on Ubuntu 18.04 database failed to start

Post by martynbottomley »

Thank you so much for your assistance. I followed your instructions and everything worked fine. I foolishly then decided to reload Ubuntu 18.04 again so that I would definitely have a clean machine.

Although I was able to run mythtv-setup and do a channel scan, I was unable to populate the EIT channel data using mythfilldatabase after I had restarted the backend.

I reloaded Ubuntu one more time, but the same problem existed.

The channel programme data problem "disappeared" after I installed zoneminder and had to change the Date.Timezone parameter in /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

All is now working. Thanks again
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