MythTV: XMLTV requires a Date::Manip timezone of +0000 to work properly

There is currently a bug in Ubuntu Lucid which prevents mythfilldatabase from running to completion. The error message which gets thrown up is “XMLTV requires a Date::Manip timezone of +0000 to work properly”.

To work round this you need to upgrade a few packages to the Debian Squeeze version. So type or paste the following commands into a Putty session:

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

and type your Ubuntu password if prompted. This will open a file called sources.list which lives in the /etc/apt folder.

Scroll down to the bottom of the file and then press the [Insert] key once (to go into “edit” mode). Next type or paste the following string onto a new line:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main

Now press the [Esc] key once and type the following:

:wq

This should save your changes and bring you back to the command line. If you make a mistake editing the file then issue :q! instead of :wq to abort your changes.

Now type the following to refresh:

sudo apt-get update

Now we want to upgrade a few packages. So:

sudo apt-get install xmltv-util

sudo apt-get install xmltv

sudo apt-get install xmltv-gui

Once they have been installed you MUST REMOVE THE REFERENCE TO DEBIAN SQUEEZE. So, type the following once more:

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list

and then scroll down to the line you entered above “deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main” and press the letter d twice in quick succession to delete this line. Once done press the [Esc] key once and type :wq to save your changes and bring you back to the command line.