MythTv troubles

Well, I have had a couple of issues this month with mythtv. I should clarify that statement, not with mythtv so much per se as with the mythtv frontend builds.

On my home network during the run of Ubuntu 10.04 I had the server, 4 Ubuntu desktops and 2 Mac's all using the mythserver that was in the standard 10.04(.01) repo's without any issues.

When Ubuntu 10.10 was released I did a single clean install on my netbook to ensure the clean install went well and there were no other issues when I discovered that the 10.10 Ubutnu mythtv backend and frontend had been upgraded to 0.23+patches (build 26437).

While independently this gave me no worries since I knew once I upgraded all Ubuntu machines everything would jive up and be right with the world. And to their Apple-ish credit, as long as I did just that, everything worked out dandy and without issue. Five complete in-line upgrades of the server and desktops and all worked smashingly well.

Oh, save two. Turns out there haven't been any "nightly" builds of the MacOS version of the frontend of myth using the 26437 build, so any version of the mythtv frontend of MacOS just fails claiming the database is 9 versions too old.

This issue would normally not even raise an eyebrow since one of the two machines actually dual-boots to Ubuntu so I can watch from that side however the last machine in question would be the Mac Mini in the living room attached to the large screen TV. When it's easy, the family is good at managing the situation and watching their media in comfort, but now, I have no answer and only hope and pray someone updates the MacOS frontend.

I love open source and I know this is one of the perils of version control that isn't strictly released and maintained by some monster company. But I would like for this article to serve as advise for anyone deploying "systems" or "servers" on their own. Beware, there is a reason why SysAdmins and Network Eng get paid the money they do and it is very easy for a home user to forget to check such things and he/she should do their due diligence if they don't want to break things that they and their family depend on, which happens if you build it well :)

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CafeNinja