Can't start MySQL5.5 on Ubuntu 12.04 - “dpkg: dependency problems”

Question

This appears to be a common problem on 12.04. I\'ve tried everthing in this thread including:

sudo apt-get clean

sudo apt-get autoclean

sudo apt-get remove         


        

Answer 1

Make sure that

auto lo                          
iface lo inet loopback

still exists in your /etc/network/interfaces

Answer 2

Had same problem, tried to install with aptitude and discover that error

Setting up mysql-server-5.5 (5.5.41-0ubuntu0.14.04.1) ...
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.5.postinst: line 146: logger: command not found
ATTENTION: An error has occured. More info is in the syslog!
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-5.5.postinst: line 236: logger: command not found
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-5.5 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127

after installing bsdutils,

apt-get install bsdutils

mysql installation passed normally

Answer 3

I found solution with this step:

WARNING: the following step will DELETE your existing data! please backup first!!!

$ sudo apt-get --yes autoremove --purge mysql-server-5.5

$ sudo apt-get --yes autoremove --purge mysql-client-5.5

$ sudo apt-get --yes autoremove --purge mysql-common

$ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql /etc/mysql ~/.mysql



$ sudo deluser mysql

$ sudo apt-get autoclean

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

$ sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.5 mysql-client-5.5

NOTE: when you get 'dpkg: error...' please run step below:

$ sudo dpkg --configure -a

good luck!

Answer 4

Just want to add my 5 cents. It may help someone else.

After hunting for and trying various solutions, without the drastic uninstall and purge, my solution was ridiculously simple.

My disk was full! I can't believe I didn't check that first. Cleared it out and hey presto!

Answer 5

This error also happened when switching from MySQL to MariaDB (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mysql-5.7/+bug/1490071).

The MySQL binary data files were not compatible with MariaDB so I switched back to MySQL because I did not have time to mess with mysqldump.

First I had to move MariaDB data away from /var/lib/mysql, then install MySQL and then move my original data from /var/lib/mysql-5.7 (this backup was automatically created before the error) to /var/lib/mysql.

Answer 6

wget http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.6/mysql-apt-config_0.2.1-1ubuntu14.04_all.deb

dpkg -i mysql-apt-config_0.2.1-1ubuntu14.04_all.deb

apt-get update

apt-get install mysql-server