Yes, I've searched, and found a little info.
But maybe I'm being too cautious knowing the amount of time it took me to get my instance of KnoppMyth running and I don't want all that time to be wasted....

I have an old version of KnoppMyth - R5A16, I think.....or is it R5A22. I'm not sure it matters.

I just paid my $20 for Schedules Direct and am trying to get it working with my KnoppMyth box. My box has been running great for a couple years with Zap2It.

I posted a message at the Schedules Direct forum regarding the trouble I had getting it working with by box, but thought maybe the way to go would be to upgrade it to the latest version that supports Schedules Direct. You can see that message here -->> http://forums.schedulesdirect.org/viewt ... ?f=7&t=393

OK, back to the upgrade question:
Following the instructions on the Wiki Here -->> http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page ... ythInstall

Will this mess up all the tweaks that I had to make to get my PVR-350 card and remote working in the first place? Or, does that magical save the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file somewhere and then restore it when I'm done will be all I need and no headaches will be needed.

Warning:::: the PC my KnoppMyth runs on is very old (hence the PVR-350 card). It's a Pentium-III 450 MHz with 256 MB RAM.
Also, I'm running LVM with 3 hard drives. All things to consider, I suppose when contemplating a software upgrade. Is there anything else to consider? Am I taking my life in my own hands? I really, really, really don't want to have to mess around for hours getting it to work again after attempting an upgrade, nor do I want to lose the 125 movies I have saved.

Can anyone offer help? Suggestions?

Hi,

Wise for you to stop in and query about the future path. The A series recorded with a .nuv extension (mpg file), used a cache directory, and a different database structure then is current. I don't think your upgrade would go very well.

Sounds like you have a similar setup, "old hardware" I run a Dell GX1 with a 350, single 300g drive with R5C7 currently. For me it will have to be a manual upgrade for about the same reasons as I mentioned except the recordings are .mpg now.

If you want to save your recordings then you will most likely have to use pretty and peel them off to become video files. There is a switch to use with copy that will save them using the pretty title but will have to search for it. Foolish me didn't save the reference at the time but it does work cause I asked a similar question long ago.

I would suggest obtaining another drive to do some test and evaluation with as the changes between the A16 and F27 are significant. The only other hardware change I would recommend is add an extra 128 ~ 256 memory if you can. Makes a favorable difference.

The current version does lvm, but not sure if it backward compatible. tjc I think uses it and he would be able to give you much better insight than I.

Several folks instead of doing lvm just break the two drives into a storage for videos and the other for tv as if you loose a drive you will most likely loose all your content.

The R5F27 does still run on "older hardware"
Mike

Please see the R5F27 Hints posting linked in my signature below. We've had several reported successes with upgrading from versions of a similar vintage (R5A16, R5A22, ...) following that guide.

The low spec system may be an issue, since various things in R5F27 seem to be somewhat more demanding of the hardware, but if you avoid the gratuitous UI candy it should be OK. Definitely search the forums for posts that mention R5F27 and scan for issues with hardware like yours. For example there are a couple minor hiccups with the PVR-350 setups.

So, in a knowledgeable persons opinion - would it be wiser to try to get Schedules Direct working with what I currently have? Or go the upgrade path?

Or, how hard will it be to get my current setup working with Schedules Direct? I'm getting scared away from upgrading.....even to the point of not using schedules at all.

edited to make myself more clear.

Hi,

As tjc mentioned about the ui, some of the themes use a little "extra" resources but if you stay at 256 mem then use the thin themes like gant. 384 mem has cleared any issues on any of the versions that I have run. All that happens if the theme is a "fat" one is sometimes the frontend would exit back to our favorite desktop because it could not swap out fast enough.

The only other thing that was unsatisfactory is the "eye candy" perfomance in music so don't use it.

I have an old Dell GX1 384mem (swap is 512 using 146k on the Grayhem theme ) running R5F1 with out problems but I don't use the candy.

I would expect similar performance with R5F27.

As I suggested, throw in a different drive and try it before doing changes to your current drives. You can test run with a ~10 -20 gig drive quite easily.

Do review tjc's excellent Hints&Tips !!

Mike

I did a test install on a different hard drive in the same system. It worked so I just did a new install on the same primary drive I had in the box before.

I'm up and running on the latest and greatest. I didn't have to tweak any files to get my PVR-350 and silver remote to work. Nice.

Hi,

Congratulations

As a suggestion in case you may decide to use your new system for other features that you may add in the future, is to make a directory in the /myth. I call mine "tools" and in there I make a subfolder called "F27-debs" or what ever version I have running. Then as I add "tools" like firefox, thunderbird, dia, gimp, digikam, cups-pdf etc I save the *.deb of those installs.

Reason is as time passes the ground trembles a little and there are changes to the packages which will then need upgrades. Those will normally kill things.

By having your original "master" copy, you can months / years down the road rebuild / or make a second box, and have your current flavor with all your tools again available. A simple dpkg -i *.deb will re-install them.

Make a little script to do the copy of the debs so once something is added, run the script to preserve it for a back to the future repair / rebuild

Mike