mysql error at root password generation, Table 'mysql.user' doesn't exist'

Question

I make a fresh install of lamp on my server (kubuntu distribution) but when I install it, I doesn't have to specify password for root user or something. I tried to purge mysql-server and then reinstall it without success.

When I try to make a sudo mysqladmin -u root password -p "", terminal return me this error : mysqladmin: unable to change password; error: 'Table 'mysql.user' doesn't exist'

Maybe I missed removing something before mysql-server install (I had an another error before because my partition was full and that's broke my install).

Thanks in advance for your time.

Edit :

I tried again a remove purge on mysql*, autoremove and then apt-get install mysql-server.

Now I get this error during the installation :

    start: Job failed to start
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing package mysql-server-5.5 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of mysql-server:
 mysql-server depends on mysql-server-5.5; however:
  Package mysql-server-5.5 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package mysql-server (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates it's a follow-up error from a previous failure.
                                                                                                            Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.9) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-server-5.5
 mysql-server
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Edit two :

I tried all this method and it doesn't work too. Maybe I miss something about linux distribution specification or something.

Edit three :

I purge again, remove /var/lib/mysql folder and error disappear. But the command doesn't allow me to type any password or something for basic configuration.

Try installing mysql by itself ... after creating space to install. — Keith John Hutchison, Oct 30 '16 at 23:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

I understand your frustration, as I repeatedly went through the same process. In fact your thoughts are correct when you stated "Maybe I missed removing something before mysql-server install."

There is a known bug when attempting to purge and remove mysql. It may be that package dependency config files are still remaining once the purge is complete.

Reference to the MySQL Bug #72722 is a known solution, and ultimately what worked for myself.

Again repeat the removal process:

sudo apt-get remove --purge mysql-server mysql-client mysql-common
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get autoclean
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/mysql
sudo rm -rf /etc/mysql
sudo rm -rf /var/log/mysql

Once the above commands are complete, run the following command to check the current state of all the mysql packages:

sudo dpkg -l | grep mysql

If you see anything populated in the list, these must be purged before reinstall. Examples of codes will be ii (installed), rc (removed config-files kept), or ic (installed config files). The package name is to the right of these flags. Copy each one and run the following command one by one:

sudo apt-get purge <package-name-here>

Once the list is emptied you may then install MySQL on Ubuntu without error

sudo apt install mysql-server mysql-client

Thanks for your post, I edited root user manually and it works finally, but yeah deleting all data about mysql seems to be the unique solution for a working installation. — Kupris, Nov 08 '16 at 08:57

mysql error at root password generation, Table 'mysql.user' doesn't exist'

1 Answers1