uname -a
Linux vm3359 2.6.32-5-amd64 #1 SMP Sun Sep 23 10:07:46 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux

sb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.6 (squeeze)
Release: 6.0.6
Codename: squeeze

Hi,

You might be experiencing the same problem as MDEV-3882, https://lists.launchpad.net/maria-discuss/msg00698.html and https://kb.askmonty.org/en/drop-in-replacement-on-debian/ describe. If so, you could try either follow the workaround advice from https://lists.launchpad.net/maria-discuss/msg00698.html, or wait till MariaDB-5.5.29 is released, the release is being prepared and built right now.

OK, I'll wait for MariaDB-5.5.29 then and report back if it fixed my problem.

cheers

Hi Petr,

MariaDB-5.5.29 is out now, could you please try and see if the problem has been resolved for you?

Hello,

Unfortunately still no success -

apt-get install mariadb-server

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree       

Reading state information... Done

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:

  libdbi0 libdirectfb-1.2-9 libdns81 libfont-freetype-perl libfontenc1 libgmp3c2 libgs8 libisc83 libjpeg62 liblcms1 libmagickcore3 libmagickwand3 libreadline5 libsvga1

  libsysfs2 libt1-5 libts-0.0-0 libx86-1 libxcb-render-util0 libxfont1 tsconf xfonts-encodings xfonts-utils

Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

The following extra packages will be installed:

  mariadb-client-5.5 mariadb-client-core-5.5 mariadb-server-5.5 mariadb-server-core-5.5

Suggested packages:

  tinyca mariadb-test

The following packages will be REMOVED:

  mysql-client-5.1 mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  mariadb-client-5.5 mariadb-client-core-5.5 mariadb-server mariadb-server-5.5 mariadb-server-core-5.5

0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 3 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Need to get 0 B/29.8 MB of archives.

After this operation, 51.7 MB of additional disk space will be used.

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

Preconfiguring packages ...

(Reading database ... 42531 files and directories currently installed.)

Removing mysql-server-5.1 ...

[ ok ] Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.

Removing mysql-client-5.1 ...

Removing mysql-server-core-5.1 ...

Processing triggers for man-db ...

Selecting previously unselected package mariadb-client-core-5.5.

(Reading database ... 42311 files and directories currently installed.)

Unpacking mariadb-client-core-5.5 (from .../mariadb-client-core-5.5_5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze_amd64.deb) ...

Selecting previously unselected package mariadb-client-5.5.

Unpacking mariadb-client-5.5 (from .../mariadb-client-5.5_5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze_amd64.deb) ...

Selecting previously unselected package mariadb-server-core-5.5.

Unpacking mariadb-server-core-5.5 (from .../mariadb-server-core-5.5_5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze_amd64.deb) ...

Selecting previously unselected package mariadb-server-5.5.

Unpacking mariadb-server-5.5 (from .../mariadb-server-5.5_5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze_amd64.deb) ...

Selecting previously unselected package mariadb-server.

Unpacking mariadb-server (from .../mariadb-server_5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze_all.deb) ...

Processing triggers for man-db ...

Setting up mariadb-client-core-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...

Setting up mariadb-client-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...

Setting up mariadb-server-core-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...

Setting up mariadb-server-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...

Installing new version of config file /etc/mysql/debian-start ...

Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/mysql ...

[ ok ] Stopping MariaDB database server: mysqld.

dpkg: error processing mariadb-server-5.5 (--configure):

 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 7

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mariadb-server:

 mariadb-server depends on mariadb-server-5.5; however:

  Package mariadb-server-5.5 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing mariadb-server (--configure):

 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured

Errors were encountered while processing:

 mariadb-server-5.5

 mariadb-server

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Hi,

I suppose you might have some broken dependencies/configuration. If you hadn't yet, you might want to try

apt-get install -f
dpkg --configure -a

Tried both with below output -

1. apt-get install -f
   Reading package lists... Done
   Building dependency tree
   Reading state information... Done
   The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required:
   libmysqlclient16
   Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove it.
   0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
   2 not fully installed or removed.
   After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
   Setting up mariadb-server-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...
   [ ok ] Stopping MariaDB database server: mysqld.
   dpkg: error processing mariadb-server-5.5 (--configure):
   subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 7
   dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mariadb-server:
   mariadb-server depends on mariadb-server-5.5; however:
   Package mariadb-server-5.5 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing mariadb-server (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
mariadb-server-5.5
mariadb-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

root@vm3359:/var/lib/mysql# dpkg --configure -a
Setting up mariadb-server-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...
[ ok ] Stopping MariaDB database server: mysqld.
dpkg: error processing mariadb-server-5.5 (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 7
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mariadb-server:
mariadb-server depends on mariadb-server-5.5; however:
Package mariadb-server-5.5 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing mariadb-server (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
mariadb-server-5.5
mariadb-server

Tried those as well after removing mariadb and no problems reported in such case.

here's my sources just in case, nothing special though

deb http://ftp.cz.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main
deb-src http://ftp.cz.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main

deb http://ftp.cz.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main
deb-src http://ftp.cz.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main

deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main

1. MariaDB 5.5 repository list - created 2013-01-29 20:58 UTC
2. http://mariadb.org/mariadb/repositories/
   deb http://mirror2.hs-esslingen.de/mariadb/repo/5.5/debian squeeze main
   deb-src http://mirror2.hs-esslingen.de/mariadb/repo/5.5/debian squeeze main

Okay, so what happens if you

• remove mariadb
• run

apt-get install -f
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get autoremove

• and then try to install mariadb-server again?

>> here's my sources just in case, nothing special though

Well, we can see in the output that it picks up 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze, so I guess the repository works all right.

Also, if the above doesn't help, I would try to create a temporary sources.list with only mariadb repository, run apt-get update, then try to install mariadb-server, and then restore the previous sources.list. But if it works and the normal way doesn't, we'll need to know about it.

It gives me the same error in both cases i.e. with all repos as well as with mariadb repo only.

I created a Squeeze VM and tried to install mariadb-server from the same repo, it worked all right for me both as a clean installation and as a replacement for MySQL 5.5.29; so at least it's not a generic problem, there must be some remains of a previous configuration on the machine where you are getting the error.

Could you please run

dpkg -l | grep -i mysql
dpkg -l | grep -i maria
dpkg -l | grep -i percona

and provide the output?
Thanks.

Here it goes -

1. dpkg -l | grep -i percona
2. dpkg -l | grep -i maria
   ii libmariadbclient18 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database client library
   ii libmysqlclient18 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze Virtual package to satisfy external depends
   rc mariadb-client-5.5 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database client binaries
   ii mariadb-common 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database common files (e.g. /etc/mysql/conf.d/mariadb.cnf)
   rc mariadb-server-5.5 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database server binaries
   ii mysql-common 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database common files (e.g. /etc/mysql/my.cnf)
3. dpkg -l | grep -i mysql
   ii libdbd-mysql-perl 4.016-1 Perl5 database interface to the MySQL database
   ii libmysqlclient16 5.1.66-0+squeeze1 MySQL database client library
   ii libmysqlclient18 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze Virtual package to satisfy external depends
   ii mariadb-common 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database common files (e.g. /etc/mysql/conf.d/mariadb.cnf)
   ii mysql-client-5.1 5.1.66-0+squeeze1 MySQL database client binaries
   ii mysql-common 5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze MariaDB database common files (e.g. /etc/mysql/my.cnf)
   ii mysql-server-5.1 5.1.66-0+squeeze1 MySQL database server binaries and system database setup
   ii mysql-server-core-5.1 5.1.66-0+squeeze1 MySQL database server binaries
   ii php5-mysql 5.3.3-7+squeeze14 MySQL module for php5

Please note I'm upgrading from 5.1.66 not 5.5, which worked for me on Gentoo with no problem. Though I can try some other path if that's major problem on binary distro.

Okay, it does make a difference. Normally it shouldn't happen (I checked, it doesn't), but you can get it for example if you have something in your 5.1 /etc/mysql/my.cnf file that 5.5 doesn't recognize. It happens, some variables get removed between major versions, or their value sets change.

I emulated the problem by adding character-set-server = unknown to [mysqld] section of /etc/mysql/my.cnf before installing mariadb-server, and got the exact same problem:

Setting up mariadb-server-5.5 (5.5.29-mariadb1~squeeze) ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/mysql/debian-start ...
Installing new version of config file /etc/init.d/mysql ...
Stopping MariaDB database server: mysqld.
dpkg: error processing mariadb-server-5.5 (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
configured to not write apport reports
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mariadb-server:
mariadb-server depends on mariadb-server-5.5; however:
Package mariadb-server-5.5 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing mariadb-server (--configure):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
configured to not write apport reports
Processing triggers for menu ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
mariadb-server-5.5
mariadb-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

If you have a similar case, you'll see quite verbose explanation of the error in your syslog file. In my case it looks this way:

Feb 2 11:18:17 squeeze-64 /etc/init.d/mysql[19850]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: #007/usr/sbin/mysqld: Character set 'unknown' is not a compiled character set and is not specified in the '/usr/share/mysql/charsets/Index.xml' file
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: 130202 11:24:19 [ERROR] Aborting
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: 130202 11:24:19 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Shutdown complete
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: Installation of system tables failed! Examine the logs in
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: /var/lib/mysql for more information.
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: The problem could be conflicting information in an external
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: my.cnf files. You can ignore these by doing:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: shell> /scripts/mysql_install_db --defaults-file=~/.my.cnf
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]: You can also try to start the mysqld daemon with:
Feb 2 11:24:19 squeeze-64 mysqld_safe[20442]:

etc.

Could you please check yours?

Indeed after commenting these two lines upgrade went well.

default-character-set=utf8
character-set-server=utf8

thanks for all your time on this.

cheers

character-set-server=utf8 should be fine, but default-character-set was indeed deprecated in 5.0 and removed in 5.5: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-options.html#option_mysqld_default-character-set

I'm glad it works now.