Hi,

I want to upgrade my mobo in my server machine so that I can use a smaller, quieter box (ATX to microATX and Antec Aria). I can see that there are at least two ways of trying to do this. I’ve tried (1) but without success but wonder this is the best option.

OPTION 1. Just attach the hard disc to the new mobo.

First step I backed up the database on the machine with the original mobo for safety. I understand (maybe wrongly) that Linux will boot even if the hardware changes so put the new mobo together with my tuner card and attached the HDD. It booted and it partially worked. I got it running but the FE couldn’t connect to the BE running in the same machine. After messing about a bit I rebooted but it failed to boot, hanging at all sorts of random places in the boot up sequence when tried a number of times. It did boot again but the keyboard and mouse didn’t work. I got a bit worried and put it all back together with the original mobo. Fortunately it still worked.

Should I be able to do this? If not, would my second idea work? I haven’t tried this.

OPTION 2. Build a new machine with the new mobo, get the same version of Myth running and move over recordings and restore the database.

If I get a new tuner card I can build a completely new machine with the new mobo and leave my current one hoovering up TV. Once it’s all working and set up I could copy over the recordings that are in the /myth/tv directory and then restore the database from a backup I make on the old machine just prior to moving the programme files over.

If this is the best options, do I just put all the database backup files in the same directory on the new machine and do a restore?

Any other advice on how to do this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
S

Either way should more or less work. When I moved from my old box to my new box I basically used method 2.

- Do a back up the old box

- Do an install on the new box

- Copy most of /myth from the old box to the new box (leave out avimanager, lost+found, mythburn, nuv2disc, and stream). I did this using rsync over my LAN.

- Do a restore from the backup you copied across with everything else.

Hi,

You should be able to swap mobo without toooo much work. Just do a couple of preliminary things first. set your XF86Config-4 to use Driver "vesa" (assuming you are not using tv out)

Then go into the utilities and set the General ip's to be local 127.0.0.1 in both locations. FE won't work if the ip's are different.

Reboot to be sure all is still ok and comes up on the computer monitor. move drive to new mobo.

On boot up, it will most likely open the setup terminal. Do alt x and login as root run # netcardconfig then run # aslaconfig so it can rediscover those two items. Now login on setup terminal and it will most likely take you to the setup screens. You may have to delete and reload your tuner card but I would just esc out and try it.

XF86Config-4 will require tweaking depending on the video but should be working with vesa. May have to run alsamixer also.

Mike

Thanks tjc and mjl for your sage words. I think I'll try option 2 as detailled by mjl as it'll be quicker.

I wasn't clear what you meant by setting XF86Config-4 to vesa but have done some searching around. I think you mean editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and that I should change the line that says:


to

Is that correct?

But as both boards are Geforce2, and it seemed to display the video OK when I put the hard disc on the new mobo first time I tried it, do I need to make this change to 'vesa'?

Thanks again
-S

I wouldn't bother given that hardware, but it's a good trick to have in your back pocket.

Hi,

Because you did not supply ANY info on either machine, I took you down the "generic" path. vesa is a generic video driver, not at all fancy but will work 99.99% of the time. Once x is running then you can do all the other tweaks and setups. Later in moments of relaxing, you can try to id the proper video dirver.

Since they both are nvidia, you should be able to skip that step. The rest of the steps you will most likely have to do.

Enjoy, KnoppMyth is awesome but also quite freindly
Mike

OBTW - Either keep the original machine name, or you'll need to fix up all refrences to the old hostname in the DB dump. I think there are a couple semi-recent threada about doing this, but I don't know of a good set of directions to point you to off the top of my head.

Hi,

Just swapping the drive, that should be ok, however it is very good tip for upgrades!


Mike

Thanks for all your help!

The other board is a Chaintech 7NIF2.

I have it running cool and quite (finally) in an Antec Aria with an 80mm CPU fan, a passive Zalman NB cooler and two PCI exhaust fans. I'm really pleased with the box, and yes, knoppmyth is awesome. For a Linux noob it's been real fun and such a great way to learn more about Linux. This forum has been great too.

I'll let you know how I get on when I find the time to change over.

-S