Sorry if this is a bit newbie, but it strikes me that there are probably a few important things one ought to backup manually prior to upgrading (apart from using mythbackup) eg. if one has added or made any customisations to various files, menus, skins etc. that are not included in mythbackup. I couldn’t find a HowTo on what other stuff it's a good idea to back up, apart from http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... storeHowTo so I thought I would post the list of things I have noted down so far. Perhaps others could add their own suggestions and maybe these could be added to the link above eventually?
This is what I have so far – anything with an ‘(x)’ next to it means to remind me to make it executable when I restore it:

/etc/fstab (x)
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh (x)
/etc/lirc/lircd.conf
/etc/modutils/lirc
/etc/samba/auth.smb (chmod 600. This is my samba credentials file)
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/usr/bin/tv_grab_au_tuhs (chmod 755. This applies to certain Australian users only, and it needs to be symlinked to tv_grab_au)
/usr/local/bin/change_channel.sh (x)

Some of these may need to be edited with data from the newly installed files prior to restoring, eg. if fstab has changed between versions, so it would be a good idea to check the contents of the newly installed files first.
I also suspect I may need to do a few things, like tweak lirc after upgrading (mknod /dev/lirc1 c 61 1), tweak alsamixer settings...
As I haven’t yet done an upgrade, I’m not sure if this will be necessary or not, or even if some of the files listed above are actually included in mythbackup – any input/corrections welcomed...

I am preparing to do an upgrade on my system as recommended by this group. I definitely want to try and save my previously recorded stuff, links to that and also the recording schedules I have built so far.

I have a DVD burner mounted so storage space is not an issue.
In researching the wiki and this forum I have found two processes.
1 is the Myth Backup and Restore howto here> http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... storeHowTo

the second is billed as being more complete the Backup Entire Server to DVD
http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page ... erverToDvd

I have experimented with this one and saw that it allows an interactive restore.

Has anyone used either of these?
Is one better than the other?
Do either of these processes backup enough of the system to be able to fully return an upgraded system to the former state related to recordings and Schedules?
Do either cover all of the files referenced in the post above?

Thanks!

Andy

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5
MBE: AMD64 3400+, K8N Neo4 Plat., 1Gig, Asus Extreme N6200, 320G pata, 2x320Gsata, 750Gsata, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD XP2000, GA 7ZMMH, 1 Gig, XFX 256M 6200, 20 Gig, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD Dur1800, 512M, PVR500

There’s no need to back up your actual recordings (previously recorded stuff) prior to upgrading, unless perhaps you’re worried about a hard disk crash, as these are not touched during the upgrade process. Running the KnoppMyth menu’s ‘Backup’ function is sufficient to backup up your entire mythconverg database (recording schedules et al), although if you’re paranoid like me you may also want to copy the entire contents of /myth/backup to a network drive after you’ve run that.

The MythBackupAndRestoreHowTo on the wiki is really just the same as running the KnoppMyth menu’s ‘Backup’ function. But as the wiki states, there are also a few “notable things not backed up,” hence the main reason for this thread.

I haven’t tried the BackupEntireServerToDvd process, but I have tried using Norton Ghost 9.0 to backup the entire hard drive (except recordings, as in my case they are stored externally on a samba share) by placing the drive into my XP box. This did NOT work successfully and Symantec support was not able to suggest the reason why. Ghost reported the backup to have completed *and verified* successfully – but many files and directories were unreadable and as a result the drive could not be restored. So personally I don’t recommend Ghost for backing up Linux partitions.

In answer to your question about which backup process is better than the other – they serve different purposes: the former (normal backup) is just a basic backup of the essentials, which occupies very little space, and which you should run daily (and prior to upgrading) to ensure that you don’t lose each day’s worth of data; the latter is a complete backup which will most likely require another whole hard drive’s worth of blank DVDs, so it’s more of a total disaster-recovery plan.

The normal backup is sufficient to be able to fully return an upgraded system to the former state related to recordings and schedules. But it doesn’t cover all of the files I referenced in my initial post above. Because everyone makes their own tweaks to their system, everyone will have different files that they’ll need to backup and restore manually after an upgrade, and my post above mentions most of the files that are relevant to my own system. Here’s my most recent list though, in case it helps you decide what you need to backup manually:
/etc/fstab
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/cron.daily/mythtv-backend
/etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh
/etc/lirc/lircd.conf
/etc/modutils/lirc
/etc/samba/auth.smb
/etc/webmin/miniserv.conf
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/usr/local/bin/change_channel.sh
/usr/local/bin/mythfilloptions.sh
Any modified menus in /usr/share/mythtv and/or /usr/share/mythtv/themes/classic/

A post by tjc here http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=8032 also recommends “…I manually back up all of /etc /root and /home as well as the mythconverg database before any upgrade. I also tend to generate a list of all the Debian packages I’ve got installed for comparison with the ones installed after the upgrade.”

After the upgrade I found that I didn’t need to tweak my alsamixer settings, but I did need to do the following (and again, this may not apply to everyone):
To configure Samba & Webmin to start at boot time, as root type:

Also, refer to bottom of www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-6.html for instructions on granting access to the MySQL database from remote systems (although for some reason that I haven’t had the time to diagnose yet, I haven’t been able to get that working again since my upgrade from R5A26 to R5A30.2)

Also, had to recompile LIRC so that my STB channel changing would work again, too, which if relevant to you I would be happy to post instrux for, but again, I think these can vary depending on your system.
HTH!

Note that I use different names from what the backup scripts use, and don't generally restore from those extra backup files. They're intended for reference and retrieving the occasional old configuration file (like for my apcupsd).

I have done a backup as mentioned above. I opened up the backup directory in samba. When I try to copy the directory onto my windows computer for backup I get an error that says it cannot copy the file. Acess is denied and check if file is in use. Any suggestions.

Rkshack

Addition: It is the just the root.tgz files. My guess is i need to change chmod them but I don't know what too. I got everything else.

I've noticed this too, about both root.tgz and root.tgz.bak, if I ever try to copy them from /myth/backup to my Windows box, via Windows drag/drop or copy/paste. I don't know the answer to the issue (and would also like to find out, if anyone else can clear this up) but I got around it by copying the files via Linux instead from /myth/backup to /myth/video - but then my setup is probably different to yours, in that my /myth/video is actually hosted on a Windows machine on the network. So I can easily access all of the backed up files from Windows (and I can use Windows to move them back to /myth/backup if required).

I am not in front of my console and won't be for a few days, but as I remember the permissions were set for Root only. So I had to CHMOD on them. I believe since I was looking at them in Windoze I tried to limit the setting but ultimately I wound up setting them wide open.

I did a man on CHMOD and that gave me the command syntax or I also remember seeing in here somewhere the syntax for CHMOD.

Sorry I can't be more help, but can't get to the console.

_________________
KnoppMyth R5.5
MBE: AMD64 3400+, K8N Neo4 Plat., 1Gig, Asus Extreme N6200, 320G pata, 2x320Gsata, 750Gsata, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD XP2000, GA 7ZMMH, 1 Gig, XFX 256M 6200, 20 Gig, PVR-150 Retail w/Blaster
SBE: AMD Dur1800, 512M, PVR500

To make things world readable, which is all you should need:

Thanks, that did the trick for me