Drupal migrating to openpublish

So, I downloaded my existing drupal db thinking I would do a clean install with openpublish, since I couldn't find much in the way of migration help. Alas, it was not to be. I met the system requirements, everything seemed well, and then ... lots of error messages. I tried changing the timeout in php.ini, I tried all of the tricks at the drupal forums. Finally, gave up, doing what I planned to begin with -- migration.

Here are my thoughts based upon a current Drupal installation with core modules.

• Usual advice, backup, archive, etc. all content, custom themes, mods, well -- everything.
• Turn off all modules that you can -- you want to start with a close to as an out-of-box / vanilla drupal site as you can.
• Your mileage may vary (i.e., what worked for me, may not work for you).
  

What works for migration:

• Download a copy of openpublish to your desktop; unzip it so that you can pull out the modules. You will not be overwriting your entire drupal site -- the openpublish install package has to install into an empty database, so you don't want to do that!
  
• rubik theme
• the modules
• Follow the openpublish module setup
• Calais
• You need to get an API Key to use Calais which is a separate process

What won't work for migration:

• the openpublish theme
• create content types for openpublish