package manager broken

[Tom H]

On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 2:49 PM, Paul Tremblay <ptrembl at amazon.com> wrote:
> On 05/30/13 14:17, Tom H wrote:
>>
>> apt-cache show mysql-server-5.5
>> apt-cache policy mysql-server-5.5
>> ls /var/cache/apt/archives/*mysql*
>
>>>ls /var/cache/apt/archives/*mysql*
>
> /var/cache/apt/archives/mysql-server_5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1_all.deb
>
> The output from the first two commands are below. I'm not sure how to read
> them.
>
> Package: mysql-server-5.5
> Version: 5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
> Filename:
> pool/main/m/mysql-5.5/mysql-server-5.5_5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1_amd64.deb
>
> Package: mysql-server-5.5
> Version: 5.5.22-0ubuntu1
> Filename:
> pool/main/m/mysql-5.5/mysql-server-5.5_5.5.22-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb
>
> mysql-server-5.5:
>   Installed: 5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
>   Candidate: 5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
>   Version table:
>  *** 5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
>         500 http://10.43.24.48/ubuntu/desktop/ precise-updates/main amd64
> Packages
>         500 http://10.43.24.48/ubuntu/desktop/ precise-security/main amd64
> Packages
>         100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>      5.5.22-0ubuntu1 0
>         500 http://10.43.24.48/ubuntu/desktop/ precise/main amd64 Packages

All of these outputs look OK.

"apt-cache show mysql-server-5.5" gives you the versions of
mysql-server-5.5 available in the repositories.

"apt-cache policy mysql-server-5.5" gives you the versions of
mysql-server-5.5 that are installed and that can be installed.

I should've asked for the outputs of "apt-cache show mysql-server" and
"apt-cache policy mysql-server"...

Looking more closely at your apt-get output, I see "Version of
mysql-server to be configured is 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.2".

I've never come across this version before; 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
yes but 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.2 no (it doesn't mean that it doesn't
exist or hasn't existed; I don't think that Ubuntu keeps an archive of
everything that's been uploaded to its repositories so it's difficult
to check; anyway, I might be misremembering!). Given your output
above, I don't really understand from where it's coming; except that
you must've installed it but something failed, most likely its
postinst, failed.

Do you have a postinst script for 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.2?

find /var/lib/dpkg/info -name "*mysql*"

Can you install the latest mysql-server with "apt-get install
mysql-server" or "apt-get install
mysql-server=5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1"?

Failing that you'll have to disable any 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.2
postinst script and/or install 5.5.31-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 with dpkg (and
use force).