How do I upgrade MySQL to 5.5, am I best off waiting for it to be available through apt-get?

Question

How would I go about upgrading MySQL to version 5.5 on Ubuntu Server 9.10?

Would I be better off waiting for it to be an easy $ sudo apt-get install mysql-server job?

I'm also unsure as to which download I would need to get from here.

Answer 1

What's New in MySQL 5.5

Here are some recent improvements to the speed, scalability, and user-friendliness of the MySQL database and the InnoDB storage engine.

A step by step guide to upgrading to MySQL 5.5

Answer 2

This doesn't solve your problem but here's the wishlist bug for packaging MySQL 5.5.

Answer 3

A good option might be to wait for a version from dotdeb.org. Once it's available in Debian unstable/experimental, there will be packages available there.

http://www.dotdeb.org/tag/mysql/

Answer 4

I have sucessfully installed MySQL-5.5.15 into Natty (Ubuntu 11.04) with alien from official binary RPMs.

Install alien and libaio1 (used from MySQL-5.5)

apt-get install alien libaio1

Fetch binary RPMs from MySQL downloads

$ wget -i -
ftp://MIRROR_SERVER/pub/mysql/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/MySQL-client-5.5.15-1.linux2.6.x86_64.rpm
ftp://MIRROR_SERVER/pub/mysql/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/MySQL-devel-5.5.15-1.linux2.6.x86_64.rpm
ftp://MIRROR_SERVER/pub/mysql/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/MySQL-server-5.5.15-1.linux2.6.x86_64.rpm
ftp://MIRROR_SERVER/pub/mysql/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/MySQL-shared-5.5.15-1.linux2.6.x86_64.rpm
^D

Convert them!

fakeroot alien MySQL*.rpm

...and, install them.

sudo dpkg -i mysql*.deb

Add mysql user

useradd -r mysql

Initialize data directory

mysql_install_db --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --rpm --skip-name-resolve --user=mysql

Set other necessary paths

mkdir /var/lib/mysqld
chown mysql /var/lib/mysqld/

mkdir /var/log/mysql
chown mysql /var/log/mysql

Start DB

service mysql start

Change the root password

/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'your_password'

Answer 5

There ist a brand-new ppa (personal package archive) repository which includes - beneath other things - mysql5.5 for natty and oneiric:

https://launchpad.net/~nathan-renniewaldock/+archive/ppa

It may be added to your system using this commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nathan-renniewaldock/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Answer 6

There is a painless installer for mysql 5.5 on debian at dotdeb.org. They have instructions about how to get their repository listed with aptitude, here: http://www.dotdeb.org/instructions/ Once that was done, I used Synaptic to upgrade mysql-server to version 5.5 . It worked without a hitch.

Answer 7

The process for upgrading from 5.1 (if you've built a LAMP server) to 5.5 are described here If you are interested in just installing a vanilla MySQL server, then build a clean install of your server and follow those directions at the page I referenced which do not involve a previously installed MySQL instance.

If you want to use phpMyAdmin, you will need to build a LAMP server (as described here and then follow all of the instructions for upgrading contained in the previous link. This will allow you to use the apt-get for all of the necessary packages for phpMyAdmin and then switch out the MySQL version.