Re: [tlug] MySQL behaving strangely

[Dave M G <dave@example.com>]

TLUG,

Thanks for the helpful advice.

Unfortunately I've hit an error I don't know what to do about.

The symlink solution worked, but Ubuntu clears the /tmp directory on 
every boot. So I edited the my.cnf file to use /tmp/mysql.sock.

But when I tried to restart MySQL, it kept saying "[fail]". So I put the 
my.cnf file back to the way it was, and it still failed to start MySQL. 
I rebooted, and MySQL still didn't work.

So I thought I would reinstall MySQL using Synaptic, and it gave me 
errors. It said the package hard errors in it, and it wouldn't 
re-install. Then I tried removing it, and then it ironically told me 
that it had errors and I should reinstall it before attempting to remove it.

I tried removing it from the command line, and it said this:

Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 111433 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mysql-server-5.0 5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1 (using 
.../mysql-server-5.0_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1_i386.deb) ...
* Stopping MySQL database server mysqld                                 
[fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: warning - old pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
* Stopping MySQL database server mysqld                                 
[fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing 
/var/cache/apt/archives/mysql-server-5.0_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1_i386.deb 
(--unpack):
subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
* Stopping MySQL database server mysqld                                 
[fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "stop" failed.
* Starting MySQL database server mysqld                                 
[fail]
invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error while cleaning up:
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/mysql-server-5.0_5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.1_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

So now what am I supposed to do? It won't let me start it, stop it, 
remove it, or anything.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

--
Dave M G