How to purge completly a broken MySQL

[stan]

On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 04:06:42PM -0800, NoOp wrote:
> On 01/10/2009 03:40 PM, stan wrote:
> > On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 04:07:25PM -0500, steve wrote:
> >> Hal Burgiss wrote:
> >> > On Sat, Jan 10, 2009 at 02:41:20PM -0500, stan wrote:
> >> >> How can I force a complete purge of this package?
> >> > 
> >> > apt-get purge ....
> >> > 
> >> > AFAIK, that will remove all remnants of the original installation.
> >> > 
> >> 
> >> sudo apt-get remove --purge packagename
> >> 
> > That results in:
> > 
> > Package mysql-server-5.0 is not installed, so not removed
> 
> Reinstall it and then purge it. Here is what it installs (note the '-s'
> which means that I've "simulated" the install" so nothing actually got
> installed on my system):
> 
> $ sudo apt-get install -s mysql-server-5.0
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> The following extra packages will be installed:
>   libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl
>   mysql-client-5.0
> Suggested packages:
>   dbishell mysql-doc-5.0 tinyca
> Recommended packages:
>   libterm-readkey-perl apparmor libhtml-template-perl
> The following NEW packages will be installed:
>   libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl
>   mysql-client-5.0 mysql-server-5.0
> 0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
> Inst libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1.1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Inst libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1.1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Inst libdbi-perl (1.601-1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Inst libdbd-mysql-perl (4.005-1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Inst mysql-client-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy-updates)
> Inst mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy-updates)
> Conf libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1.1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Conf libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1.1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Conf libdbi-perl (1.601-1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Conf libdbd-mysql-perl (4.005-1 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy)
> Conf mysql-client-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy-updates)
> Conf mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.51a-3ubuntu5.4 Ubuntu:8.04/hardy-updates)
> 
> So, reinstall:
> 
> sudo apt-get install --reinstall mysql-server-5.0
> 
> and then purge it:
> 
> sudo apt-get remove --purge mysql-server-5.0
> 
> and you should be ok.

I seem to have created quite the extrodinary mess here :-(

I went through those steps, but the install after that still fails
I don't beleive that I am getting all the remnants of this package removed.
What procedure would do that?

Here is teh failure, if it helps:

Setting up mysql-server-5.0 (5.0.67-0ubuntu6) ...
 * Stopping MySQL database server mysqld                                 [
 OK ] 
 090110 19:46:13 [ERROR] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't find file:
 './mysql/user.frm' (errno: 13)
 090110 19:46:13 [ERROR] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Can't find file:
 './mysql/user.frm' (errno: 13)
 ERROR: 1017  Can't find file: './mysql/user.frm' (errno: 13)
 090110 19:46:13 [ERROR] Aborting

 090110 19:46:13 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld: Shutdown complete


 Reloading AppArmor profiles : done.
  * /etc/init.d/mysql: WARNING: /etc/mysql/my.cnf cannot be read. See
  README.Debi
  an.gz
   * Starting MySQL database server mysqld
   [fail] 
   invoke-rc.d: initscript mysql, action "start" failed.
   dpkg: error processing mysql-server-5.0 (--configure):
	subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
	Errors were encountered while processing:
	 mysql-server-5.0
	 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

-- 
One of the main causes of the fall of the roman empire was that, lacking
zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C
programs.