Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer?

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philledwards at gmail

Jul 9, 2012, 2:32 AM

Post #1 of 15 (1175 views)
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How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer?

I've decided to virtualise MythTV backend on XenServer. But I'm having
trouble figuring out whether it's even possible.

To install Ubuntu 12.04 on XenServer you have to first create a new
XenServer template to cater for 12.04. That's easy enough. But all the
information I've found on doing this assumes you will be doing a network
installation by entering a URL such as http://archive.ubuntu.net/ubuntu/.
From what I've seen there doesn't appear to be a similar URL available
anywhere for Mythbuntu. And I can't find any information on how to install
it from a CD ISO.

Has anyone managed to virtualise Mythbuntu on Xenserver? I've seen some
reports of MythTV working under Xen, but I'm not sure what distro that was.

michael at thewatsonfamily

Jul 9, 2012, 2:41 AM

Post #2 of 15 (1138 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On 9/07/2012 7:32 PM, Phill Edwards wrote:
> I've decided to virtualise MythTV backend on XenServer. But I'm having
> trouble figuring out whether it's even possible.
>
> To install Ubuntu 12.04 on XenServer you have to first create a new
> XenServer template to cater for 12.04. That's easy enough. But all the
> information I've found on doing this assumes you will be doing a
> network installation by entering a URL such as
> http://archive.ubuntu.net/ubuntu/. From what I've seen there doesn't
> appear to be a similar URL available anywhere for Mythbuntu. And I
> can't find any information on how to install it from a CD ISO.
>
> Has anyone managed to virtualise Mythbuntu on Xenserver? I've seen
> some reports of MythTV working under Xen, but I'm not sure what distro
> that was.

You could install a basic ubuntu, then install Mythbuntu with apt-get
install mythbuntu-desktop

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philledwards at gmail

Jul 9, 2012, 3:01 AM

Post #3 of 15 (1132 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

> You could install a basic ubuntu, then install Mythbuntu with apt-get install mythbuntu-desktop

Aaaah - that sounds like a good idea. I was wondering whether you
could install Mythbuntu on top of an existing Ubuntu setup. I'll give
it a try.

Once you've installed mythbuntu-desktop, does it let you choose
somewhere whether you're setting up a backend or a frontend?
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richard.e.morton at gmail

Jul 9, 2012, 3:12 AM

Post #4 of 15 (1138 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

I would look to start with xubuntu or even an ubuntu minimal installation
instead of ubuntu as it will install less of the GNOME desktop services
then install mythbunutu-desktop ontop.

R

michael at thewatsonfamily

Jul 9, 2012, 4:27 AM

Post #5 of 15 (1128 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On 9/07/2012 8:01 PM, Phill Edwards wrote:
>> You could install a basic ubuntu, then install Mythbuntu with apt-get install mythbuntu-desktop
> Aaaah - that sounds like a good idea. I was wondering whether you
> could install Mythbuntu on top of an existing Ubuntu setup. I'll give
> it a try.
>
> Once you've installed mythbuntu-desktop, does it let you choose
> somewhere whether you're setting up a backend or a frontend?
> _______________________________________________
>
If you only want to install backend, install with "apt-get install
mythtv-backend mythtv-frontend" will just install mythtv and is
dependencies, (note you need mythtv-frontend install to be able to
select language on first entry into mythtv-setup, after this you can
safely uninstall mythtv-frontend.

If you want a full frontend setup, then install mythbuntu-desktop for
the full Mythbuntu experience.

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michael at thewatsonfamily

Jul 9, 2012, 4:32 AM

Post #6 of 15 (1129 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On 9/07/2012 8:12 PM, Richard Morton wrote:
> I would look to start with xubuntu or even an ubuntu minimal
> installation instead of ubuntu as it will install less of the GNOME
> desktop services then install mythbunutu-desktop ontop.
>
Pretty sure the XenServer install ubuntu-minimal, as it basically
netboots and installs from a remote source.

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rjrbytes at gmail

Jul 12, 2012, 4:20 AM

Post #7 of 15 (1104 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 6:32 AM, Michael Watson
<michael [at] thewatsonfamily> wrote:
> On 9/07/2012 8:12 PM, Richard Morton wrote:
>>
>> I would look to start with xubuntu or even an ubuntu minimal installation
>> instead of ubuntu as it will install less of the GNOME desktop services then
>> install mythbunutu-desktop ontop.
>>
> Pretty sure the XenServer install ubuntu-minimal, as it basically netboots
> and installs from a remote source.

I actually just installed MythTV under Xen over the weekend using
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. My Xen server is running Ubuntu 12.04 and I set up
a domU, then used tasksel to select the MythTV backend role, which
installed all the necessary bits. After that, I was able to use X11
on my laptop, ssh to the new backend with X forwarding and run the
mythtv-setup application.
I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
it.

-Robert
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mtdean at thirdcontact

Jul 12, 2012, 11:18 AM

Post #8 of 15 (1087 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On 07/12/2012 07:20 AM, Robert Rust wrote:
> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
> into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
> it.

Full backup. Full restore.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore

Otherwise, you can move your recorded video to Video Library, but you'll
lose all your recording history and such.

Mike
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philledwards at gmail

Jul 13, 2012, 5:32 AM

Post #9 of 15 (1076 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

>> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
>> into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
>> it.

> Full backup. Full restore.
> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore

I have an existing server which is FC14. My repo is ATrpms and I think
support for FC14 may have terminated so I'm stuck on MythTV 0.24. I'm
looking at building a new virtual backend but that will be running
0.25 which has a different database to 0.24, so I guess a backup and
restore to the new backend is out - is that correct?

> Otherwise, you can move your recorded video to Video Library, but you'll
> lose all your recording history and such.

If you do this won't you end up with a whole load of unfriendly
filenames like 2576_20120713193000.mpg? Is there a way of converting
these to more friendly filenames? I know about mythlink.pl, but it
creates friendly filenames as symbolic links - is there a script that
will rename the actual recording files?
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philledwards at gmail

Jul 13, 2012, 5:34 AM

Post #10 of 15 (1079 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

> I actually just installed MythTV under Xen over the weekend using
> Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. My Xen server is running Ubuntu 12.04 and I set up
> a domU, then used tasksel to select the MythTV backend role, which
> installed all the necessary bits.

Thanks - that technique worked for me.
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mikep at randomtraveller

Jul 13, 2012, 6:09 AM

Post #11 of 15 (1076 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On 13/07/12 13:32, Phill Edwards wrote:
>>> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
>>> into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
>>> it.
>
>> Full backup. Full restore.
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore
>
> I have an existing server which is FC14. My repo is ATrpms and I think
> support for FC14 may have terminated so I'm stuck on MythTV 0.24. I'm
> looking at building a new virtual backend but that will be running
> 0.25 which has a different database to 0.24, so I guess a backup and
> restore to the new backend is out - is that correct?
>
>
Backup and restore like the man says. Then, the first time you run mythtv-setup
under 0.25 it will upgrade your database. Easy!

--

Mike Perkins

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philledwards at gmail

Jul 15, 2012, 5:53 AM

Post #12 of 15 (1044 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
> into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
> it.
>
I've been trying to figure this out too. I know a DB backup and restore was
suggested but I don't think that's enough. In order to bring the existing
disk of recordings into the XenServer environment I think new LVM
partitions have to be created on it which will destroy existing files. So
I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to do it. Did you have any good ideas?

rjrbytes at gmail

Jul 15, 2012, 7:02 AM

Post #13 of 15 (1043 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 7:53 AM, Phill Edwards <philledwards [at] gmail> wrote:
>
>> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording data
>> into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and do
>> it.
>>
> I've been trying to figure this out too. I know a DB backup and restore was
> suggested but I don't think that's enough. In order to bring the existing
> disk of recordings into the XenServer environment I think new LVM partitions
> have to be created on it which will destroy existing files. So I'm at a bit
> of a loss as to how to do it. Did you have any good ideas?
>
I left space when setting up my Xen server so I could create the
logical volume to hold recordings (my dom0 volume is about 30GB ...
the drive is 750). I actually just completed my backend migration
about an hour ago... had to do the copy of recording files overnight.
When I've completed migrating things off the hold hardware, I'm
actually going to move the old disk into the new box, reformat,
present it to the mythbackend domU and move my recordings back so I
can free up the LV space for other purposes. The DB backup and
restore worked like a charm (remembering to run the change hostname
command of course). I'm now working on upgrading my frontends...
fingers crossed. If you don't have space in your mythbackend domU,
you could conceivably copy the files to another domain that has space
and do an NFS export?

-Robert
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myrdhn at gmail

Jul 15, 2012, 5:32 PM

Post #14 of 15 (1036 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv
[mailto:mythtv-users-bounces [at] mythtv] On Behalf Of Robert Rust
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 10:03 AM
To: Discussion about MythTV
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer?

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 7:53 AM, Phill Edwards <philledwards [at] gmail>
wrote:
>
>> I'm still working on figuring out how to get all my old recording
>> data into the new backend, but I just haven't had the time to sit and
>> do it.
>>
> I've been trying to figure this out too. I know a DB backup and
> restore was suggested but I don't think that's enough. In order to
> bring the existing disk of recordings into the XenServer environment I
> think new LVM partitions have to be created on it which will destroy
> existing files. So I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to do it. Did you have
any good ideas?
>
I left space when setting up my Xen server so I could create the logical
volume to hold recordings (my dom0 volume is about 30GB ...
the drive is 750). I actually just completed my backend migration about an
hour ago... had to do the copy of recording files overnight.
When I've completed migrating things off the hold hardware, I'm actually
going to move the old disk into the new box, reformat, present it to the
mythbackend domU and move my recordings back so I can free up the LV space
for other purposes. The DB backup and restore worked like a charm
(remembering to run the change hostname command of course). I'm now working
on upgrading my frontends...
fingers crossed. If you don't have space in your mythbackend domU, you
could conceivably copy the files to another domain that has space and do an
NFS export?

-Robert
_______________________________________________

I attempted to move my masterbackend to a xen domU as well a few years ago
and succeeded with one issue. The recordings got messed up because of write
speed issues to the "drive" I was using. I setup a NFS share on the dom0 and
mounted that inside the domU. Multiple simultaneous recordings oversaturated
the virtual nic and caused data corruption.
My recordings now all exist on a separate RAID drive that I could
potentially put inside the bottle, but my capture devices do not all live on
the system anymore. I have an HDHRPrime and a slave backend with an HDPVR.
If both of them were to be recording on all tuners I could run into a
similar issue.
I may attempt again at some point in the future, but I need a motherboard
with 2 NICs so one could be dedicated to the domU.

MarcT

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philledwards at gmail

Jul 15, 2012, 10:54 PM

Post #15 of 15 (1031 views)
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Re: How to install Mythbuntu on XenServer? [In reply to]

> I may attempt again at some point in the future, but I need a motherboard
> with 2 NICs so one could be dedicated to the domU.

My hardware has 3 NICs as it has a Smoothwall box running as one of
the virtual machine guests. With Smoothwall you connect one NIC to an
ADSL modem, a 2nd to the local LAN, and the 3rd to a DMZ. So that
means I have one NIC dedicated to local LAN access - but it's shared
between other virtual machine guests. Were you thinking that you need
one NIC dedicated just to MythTV Backend server, or do you think
sharing the NIC amongst multiple virtual machines would be OK? My
other virtual machines are low traffic.
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