Remove mysql Completely error

Question

I am on Focal Fossa and i have mysql installed . I was trying to remove it and install mariadb . I tried sudo apt-get remove mysql but when i do mysql -V i am getting mysql Ver 8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 for Linux on x86_64 ((Ubuntu)). Then i tried sudo apt-get purge mysql* and it gives no matches found

I tried the following and getting the same error

sudo apt-get remove mysql-server

Setting up mysql-server-8.0 (8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded.
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-8.0.postinst: line 191: /usr/share/mysql-common /configure-symlinks: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-8.0 (--configure):
installed mysql-server-8.0 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
mysql-server-8.0
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

when i try sudo dpkg -l | grep mysql

The result is

pi  mysql-client-8.0                           8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                     amd64        MySQL database client binaries
ii  mysql-client-core-8.0                      8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                     amd64        MySQL database core client binaries
ii  mysql-common                               5.8+1.0.5ubuntu2                            all          MySQL database common files, e.g. /etc/mysql/my.cnf
pF  mysql-server-8.0                           8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                     amd64        MySQL database server binaries and system database setup
pi  mysql-server-core-8.0                      8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1                     amd64        MySQL database server binaries
ii  php7.3-mysql                               7.3.18-1+ubuntu20.04.1+deb.sury.org+1       amd64        MySQL module for PHP
ii  php7.4-mysql

I tried to sudo apt-remove mysql* each of these and was getting

Removing mysql-server-8.0 (8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded.
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-8.0 (--remove):
installed mysql-server-8.0 package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 1
dpkg: too many errors, stopping
Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded.
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
Failed to preset unit: File mysql.service: Link has been severed
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper: error: systemctl preset failed on mysql.service: No such file or directory
Failed to start mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not found.
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
Unit mysql.service could not be found.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
 installed mysql-server-8.0 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-8.0
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

When i tried sudo apt-get -f install i got the error

Setting up mysql-server-8.0 (8.0.20-0ubuntu0.20.04.1) ...
Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded.
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
/var/lib/dpkg/info/mysql-server-8.0.postinst: line 191: /usr/share/mysql-common/configure-symlinks: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-8.0 (--configure):
installed mysql-server-8.0 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 127
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-8.0
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

If somebody can help would be grateful .

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Solution 1

What helped me

sudo systemctl disable mysql

then afterwards remove/purge or whatever.

sudo apt autoremove 

did its job.... done

Solution 2

The actions you need to take: 1. Get all mysql-related components 2. Remove all mysql component installed 3. Clean up installation directory (you can rename the folder if you need the old data)

The yum way, which I found better:

yum list installed | grep mysql
yum remove mysql-client mysql-server mysql-common mysql-devel

The apt-get way:

sudo apt-get remove --purge mysql*
sudo apt-get purge mysql*
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo apt-get remove dbconfig-mysql
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Remove data & configuration

rm -rf /var/lib/mysql/
rm -rf /etc/my.cnf

Comments

[Anoop D]

@Kulfy its /usr/share/mysql-common/configure-symlinks install mysql "$mysql_cfgdir/mysql.cnf"

[Anoop D]

@Kulfy Should i reboot after this ?

[Anoop D]

Yea ........... what to do now ?

[Anoop D]

Sorry the same error again :( , actually not the same error Renaming removed key_buffer and myisam-recover options (if present) sed: can't read /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf: No such file or directory

[Anoop D]

I have tried it earlier , but was getting the same error ( sub-process ) , will try it again . Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded. invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed. dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-8.0 (--purge): installed mysql-server-8.0 package pre-removal script subprocess returned error exit status 1

[Anoop D]

Failed to stop mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not loaded. invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed. Failed to preset unit: File mysql.service: Link has been severed /usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper: error: systemctl preset failed on mysql.service: No such file or directory Failed to start mysql.service: Unit mysql.service not found. invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed. Unit mysql.service could not be found. dpkg: error while cleaning up: installed mysql-server-8.0 package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1

[Anoop D]

Created the file but still sub-process error . When i type mysql i am getting RROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)

[Kulfy]

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

[lepe]

systemctl disable mysql and then aptitude purge mysql-community-server did the trick for me.

[Walty Yeung]

I don't think sudo apt-get dist-upgrade is neccessary here..

[Admin]

This really helped.