I just upgraded my Linode from Debian 5 to 6 as outlined here:

http://library.linode.com/troubleshooti ... -6-squeeze

All went smoothly with the exception of the things outlined in the "System Errors" section. I did get those errors it talks about in the first "missing LSB tags and overrides" and "package removed but not purged" but have ignored them as they are apparently safe.

My MySQL server however would not come back up after the upgrade. I restarted, and MySQL repeatedly fails to start. I have tried reinstalling mysql-server. Any advice on where I should start looking to identify and troubleshoot the problem?

Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.
Starting MySQL database server: mysqld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . failed!
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.1 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
configured to not write apport reports
                                      dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server:
 mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.1; however:
  Package mysql-server-5.1 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing mysql-server (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
configured to not write apport reports
                                      Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.1
 mysql-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
danny@rassilon:~$ sudo dpkg-configure mysql-server-5.1
sudo: dpkg-configure: command not found
danny@rassilon:~$ sudo dpkg --configure mysql-server-5.1
Setting up mysql-server-5.1 (5.1.49-3) ...
Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.
Starting MySQL database server: mysqld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . failed!
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.1 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.1

Check your mysql error log which is probably in /var/log or /var/lib/mysql

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I have the same problem. Please help us

/var/log/mysql.err and /var/log/mysql.log are empty.

RESOLVEDDDDD
You must comment "skip-bdb" in my.cnf!!

Same problem here, dist-upgrade to Debian 6, and now MySQL won't start. Nothing in mysql.err, but the syslog indicated:

error: 'Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)'

Tried commenting out skip-bdb, and no change, still won't start.

Anyone else have any suggestions??

Thanks,

Paul

Follow the guide and try installing the latest version in the repositories and if that doesn't work uninstal and reinstall mysql

For me, simply reinstalling 5.1 worked as it forced the removal of 5.0

It was all in the guide before I even attemtpted the upgrade. Of course because I followed the advice in the guide in backed up my system as well as /etc

You can always reinstall mysql 5.0, for example by downloading the debs from the old stable branch and using dpkg -i

I had a similar problem, which went away after I set a password for the root user and deleted the test database.

Solved this by removing MySQL completely and re-installing 5.1.

Thanks guys!