up vote 2 down vote favorite

I'm running in circles currently, trying to fix some mysql problem.

I couldn't use apt-get for a while now, because it always stuck at the line Setting up mysql-server-5.6 (5.6.27-0ubuntu0.15.04.1) ... and didn't let me do anything. So I tried to reinstall mysql, purging it. While I was able to remove mysql-server and mysql-client eventually, I'm still unable to purge mysql-common. Obviously, I managed to corrupt something, but how can I get my system back and running at this point?

...:~# apt-get purge mysql-common
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  mysql-common*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 423600 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mysql-common (5.6.27-0ubuntu0.15.04.1) ...
Purging configuration files for mysql-common (5.6.27-0ubuntu0.15.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: error: /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/my.cnf corrupt: invalid status
dpkg: error processing package mysql-common (--purge):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-common
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

-

...# sudo dpkg -P --force-all mysql-common
(Reading database ... 424733 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing mysql-common (5.6.27-0ubuntu0.15.04.1) ...
Purging configuration files for mysql-common (5.6.27-0ubuntu0.15.04.1) ...
update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for my.cnf
dpkg: error processing package mysql-common (--purge):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mysql-common

-

...:~# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.04
Release:    15.04
Codename:   vivid

My goal is to just get it back and running again (mysql).

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I don't think you ought to have a file my.cnf in /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives. To be sure, do update-alternatives --query mysql-common. That will probably fail as well, but if the output looks relevant, please add it to your question. If it simply fails with a similar message, remove /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives and try the purge operation again. – Jos Dec 31 '15 at 9:57
    
As you expected, update-alternatives only gave out no alternatives for mysql-common again. I noticed that /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/my.cfg seemed to exist. As you suggested, I moved the whole folder before trying to redo the purge operation, but the result stays the same as above. No change / effect. – Katai Dec 31 '15 at 10:08
    
sudo dpkg -P --force-all mysql-common – A.B. Dec 31 '15 at 10:59
    
@A.B. I tried that and added the output to my question - sadly, same effect: no alternatives for my.cfg – Katai Dec 31 '15 at 12:32
    
What's the output of cat /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/my.cnf – A.B. Dec 31 '15 at 12:47
up vote 2 down vote accepted

After some words in the chat, here is the solution:

sudo rm /etc/alternatives/my.cnf
sudo ln -s /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf /etc/alternatives/my.cnf

Why? The file /etc/alternatives/my.cnf has to be a link and nothing else.

That was the error message:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config my.cnf 
update-alternatives: warning: alternative /etc/mysql/mysql.cnf (part of link group my.cnf) doesn't exist; removing from list of alternatives
update-alternatives: error: unable to read link `/etc/alternatives/my.cnf': Invalid argument
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