[mythtv-users] apt-pinning on debian-multimedia repository

[Paul Gallaway]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Josu Lazkano <josu.lazkano at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all, I am getting some problems with playback on LiveTV. I am
> using debian-multimedia repository with stable version
> (0.24+fixes20110121-0.0). On the testing there is a newer version
> (0.24+fixes20110408-0.0), and I hope there will be fixed some LiveTV
> problems.
>
> I configure the APT this way:
>
> # cat /etc/apt/preferences
> Package: *
> Pin: release n=squeeze
> Pin-Priority: 900
> Package: *
> Pin: release n=wheezy
> Pin-Priority: 800

This looks correct.

You can also pin specific packages which would look something like this:
> Package: mythfrontend
> Pin: release n=wheezy
> Pin-Priority: 950
> Package: mythbackend
> Pin: release n=wheezy
> Pin-Priority: 950
> Package: mythtv
> Pin: release n=wheezy
> Pin-Priority: 950

You should pin every packages you need to pull. I think they are all
interdependent so the three above should do the job but the way
aptitude/apt-get determine whether they are going to replace an older
version could cause some issues in some cases if it's not spelled out.
See my recommendations below.

> # aptitude install -t wheezy mythtv
> [...]
> The following actions will resolve these dependencies:
>      Remove the following packages:
> 1)      libmyth-0.24-0
> 2)      libmyth-dev
> 3)      mythbrowser
> 4)      mythmusic
> 5)      mythstream
> 6)      mythtv
> 7)      mythtv-backend
> 8)      mythtv-frontend
> 9)      mythtv-themes
> 10)     mythvideo
>
> Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?]

It's warning you that it's removing the higher priority packages. It
wants to remove the old binaries before installing the new ones. This
is safe because it won't affect the database on uninstall or alter any
menu modifications in your /home/user/.mythtv/ directory. Try this
command instead:

#/ aptitude install mythtv mythfrontend mythbackend -t wheezy -s

The 's' switch at the end is a test so it will allow you to follow
through with the recommended removals to verify that what will be
removed will be replaced with the wheezy versions. It won't actually
select/dselect anything so nothing on your system will change but
gives you the chance to confirm that the older packages are being
replaced by the newer packages.

I would not recommend pinning mythtv packages to testing. Testing is
more likely to get 0.25 (whenever it gets released) and if you're not
ready for the upgrade and you're not paying attention then well, it
could be bad. If you install the version in testing and leave your
pinning as it is, mythtv will get upgraded if stable ever gets a 0.24
version with a newer release number, or any time you want to manually
upgrade from the testing repository again. Now would be a good time to
confirm you have a recent database backup before you update.

> I don't want to upgrade all my system to testing because I have some
> problem with the 2.6.38 kernel version.

I'm running Wheezy and had some LIRC problems but it's running well
now (and I was well prepared for the LIRC changes - see the mythtv
wiki on lirc, it only applies to some hardware). You should be able to
continue running the older version of LIRC included in Squeeze with
2.6.38. If you want to test it again, I'd recommend getting the kernel
from squeeze-backports rather than the testing repository.