MySQL refuses to uninstall

Question

apt-get remove mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libhtml-template-perl mysql-server-core-5.1 libevtlog0 mysql-server-5.1 libnet1
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mysql-server
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 106 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 28208 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mysql-server ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.1 (5.1.72-2) ...
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
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.1
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
root@monitor:~#

I've had issues with MySQL not starting so I was going to reinstall it. Still will not go.

I've tried looking under /var/log for errors but I am not getting anything logged.

The config:

cat /etc/mysql/debian.cnf
# Automatically generated for Debian scripts. DO NOT TOUCH!
[client]
host     = localhost
user     = debian-sys-maint
password = Ku8MpmYWrX24hKSA
socket   = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
log = /var/log/mysql.log
[mysql_upgrade]
host     = localhost
user     = debian-sys-maint
password = Ku8MpmYWrX24hKSA
socket   = /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
basedir  = /usr
log = /var/log/mysql.log

The log:

cat /var/log/mysql.log
root@monitor:~#

dpkg-reconfigure mysql-server-5.1
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: mysql-server-5.1 is broken or not fully installed

What should I do to figure out why MySQL is not working right?

EDIT: I deleted all my.cnf files and reinstalled after a force uninstall. Still:

Setting up mysql-server-5.1 (5.1.72-2) ...
Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.
/etc/init.d/mysql: WARNING: /etc/mysql/my.cnf cannot be read. See README.Debian.gz ... (warning).
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
                                      Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.1
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Answer 1

You will need to reinstall the mysql-server-5.1. There is a question on the AskUbuntu that deals with this issue:

You can also try running:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server-5.1

The other possibility is forced removal of the package:

sudo apt-get --purge remove --force mysql-server-5.1

as listed in one of the questions on SuperUser

EDIT

Trying to recall one of the issues I ran into when dealing with Debian and Ubuntu packages is the debian-sys-maint account. If the account doesn't exist in the databases user table similar errors can occur. This link also suggests several destinations of logs and solutions for this problem.

Answer 2

I had similar problems just now. Note that a purge of the mysql packages leaves a variety of files behind, including the actual database files, which are in /var/lib/mysql, files in /etc/mysql, files in /var/log and the directory /var/log/mysql are left behind.

These files may cause problems, especially if they are from a different version of MySQL.

Try renaming all of these files (and directories) to *.orig and try again.