How to forcefully remove MySQL and MariaDB with unmet dependencies, when apt-get and dpkg do not help?

Question

I had installed mysql-server on my Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and it worked like a charm.

Next I installed mariadb-server and mariadb-client. There ware some conflicts with MySQL so I decided to forcefully uninstall all MariaDB components. After that I had problems with MySQL. So I decide to forcefully reinstall MySQL.

I could not uninstalled mysql-server because there are unmet dependencies after uninstalling MariaDB...

So I tried all possible combinations with apt-get and dpkg to forcefully remove the remains of MySQL and MariaDB... Finally, I also manually deleted all files in the directory tree, which contained anything in the name from MySQL or MariaDB...

$ mysql
The program 'mysql' can be found in the following packages:
 * mysql-client-core-5.7
 * mariadb-client-core-10.0
Try: sudo apt install <selected package>

But I still can not re-install MySQL because the dependencies associated with MariaDB are missing and vice versa...

$ sudo apt-get install -f mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
mysql-server is already the newest version (5.7.22-1ubuntu16.04).
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 mariadb-client : Depends: mariadb-client-10.0 (>= 10.0.34-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
 mariadb-server-10.0 : PreDepends: mariadb-common (>= 10.0.34-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
                       Depends: mariadb-client-10.0 (>= 10.0.34-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
                       Breaks: mysql-server
 mariadb-server-core-10.0 : Depends: mariadb-common (>= 10.0.34-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) but it is not going to be installed
 mysql-server : Depends: mysql-community-server (= 5.7.22-1ubuntu16.04) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Actually I need to have MySQL on my system, but I can't reinstall the Ubuntu.

Please help me to reinstall MySQL.

Solution 1

God exists! :D

The problem was solved by entering:

sudo apt-get -f install

without any other parameters

and later displaying all packages via:

sudo dpkg -l | grep mariadb
sudo dpkg -l | grep mysql

and removing problematic packages in the right order:

sudo apt-get --purge autoremove package_name

After the complete removal of all problematic packages, I could re-install MySQL without any problems...

Thank you @waltinator for your help.

Solution 2

You have confused the packaging system. "Finally, I also manually deleted all files in the directory tree, which contained anything in the name from MySQL or MariaDB". DON'T DO THAT!

The only stable packaging system state that might be available to you now is with NONE of the packages mentioned installed, then begin again, more carefully.

To get to the "NONE" state, remove and purge each package:

PKGS="mysql-server mariadb-client mariadb-server-10.0 mariadb-common mysql-community-server"
sudo apt-get check
sudo apt remove $PKGS
sudo apt purge $PKGS
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server

You may get warnings from these commands, probably due to the mess you made. Try to ignore them.

Comments

[simhumileco]

After using each of your suggested commands, I had a similar output as I past in second "output section" in my question... @waltinator Do you thing is there any different option without reinstall Ubuntu...?