mysql Ver 15.1 Distrib 10.3.22-MariaDB, for debian-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 5.2

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Release: 20.04
Codename: focal

Which version are you running? What does `dpkg -l | grep mariadb` show?

You could try uninstalling and purging and re-installing. Most likely you have some manual changes in /etc/mysql that causes this. You can also review yourself what `find /etc/mysql -ls` shows.

1. dpkg -l | grep mariadb
   ii mariadb-client-10.3 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 amd64 MariaDB database client binaries
   ii mariadb-client-core-10.3 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 amd64 MariaDB database core client binaries
   ii mariadb-common 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 all MariaDB common metapackage
   ii mariadb-server 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 all MariaDB database server (metapackage depending on the latest version)
   ii mariadb-server-10.3 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 amd64 MariaDB database server binaries
   ii mariadb-server-core-10.3 1:10.3.22-1ubuntu1 amd64 MariaDB database core server files

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.4.0-37-generic x86_64)

1. find /etc/mysql -ls
   258476 4 drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 8 12:45 /etc/mysql
   258495 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 1 12:34 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d
   258621 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 336 Dec 11 2019 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-mysql-clients.cnf
   258620 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 733 Jan 5 2020 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-client.cnf
   258776 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 4007 Jun 8 12:46 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
   258775 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 1032 Jan 5 2020 /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-mysqld_safe.cnf
   258316 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 870 Jun 8 12:46 /etc/mysql/my.cnf
   258494 4 -rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 869 Jun 8 12:44 /etc/mysql/mariadb.cnf
   258466 4 rw------ 1 root root 261 Jun 1 12:34 /etc/mysql/debian.cnf
   258457 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 24 Jun 1 12:34 /etc/mysql/my-alt.cnf -> /etc/alternatives/my.cnf
   258774 4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1620 Jan 5 2020 /etc/mysql/debian-start
   258477 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 1 12:34 /etc/mysql/conf.d
   258478 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 8 Jun 8 12:42 /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf
   258479 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 55 Aug 3 2016 /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysqldump.cnf
   258480 4 rw-rr- 1 root root 839 Aug 3 2016 /etc/mysql/my.cnf.fallback

1. history
   1 apt-get update
   2 …
   3 apt-get update
   4 apt-get upgrade
   5 apt install mariadb-server
   6 …
   7 …
   8 mysql_secure_installation
   9 service mariadb restart

It was absolutely clean install from fresh Ubuntu in DigitalOcean. I found how to fix it - i was need to remove the /etc/mysql/my.cnf link and create the real file instead, but the default setup is broken - you cant change anything in config because of World-writable config. It can be the maintainer problem - i just didn't found where to make report to them.

This is surely does not look like a clean install. A clean install
would not create the file: /etc/mysql/my-alt.cnf ->
/etc/alternatives/my.cnf

Somebody or something created that file and it is the root cause to
this issue. The file should be called my.cnf and not my-alt.cnf.

wokenlex can you confirm and can we close this issue then?

I didn't tried it after that. It's look like it was issue with mysql_secure_installation, what was runned as root. I think you can close, because it's not directly related to mariadb.