Is it possible to install MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 on Ubuntu 16.04?

Question

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04. Unfortunately I need to work MySQL 5.5 or 5.6. I tried many solutions to have MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 run on Ubuntu 16.04 like this Install MySql 5.6 on Ubuntu 16.04 . But none of them is working. Ubuntu detect the unmet dependencies but says "but it is not going to be installed" for 5.5 or says Package 'mysql-server-5.6' has no installation candidate...

Is it not possible to force an earlier version of MySQL on Ubuntu? Why is that?

The official Ubuntu 16.04 repositories do not contain any version of MySQL other than 5.7. If you want another version, you have to find package from another source. You should really not have upgraded to 16.04 without checking this. — fkraiem, Apr 26 '16 at 16:22
Which of the answer(s) of the linked question did you try? Some use the Deb package from Oracle or even compile it from source which should work no matter the state of the software repository. — David Foerster, Apr 26 '16 at 20:50
@fkraiem "You should really have no upgraded ... without checking this" - you're presuming the necessity of MySQL 5.5 was known at the time of upgrading. I recently started a new job with old software which requires MySQL 5.5 (nothing newer) - so I should have checked all possible employers and what they are running before upgrading? — Nathan Crause, Mar 05 '18 at 17:50

score 25 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 02 '18 at 08:05

Step by step guide* to install mysql 5.5.x on Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial-Xerus. Please see this documentation

OR

See steps below:

Installing MySQL 5.5.51 on Ubuntu 16.06

Uninstall any existing version of MySQL
```
sudo rm /var/lib/mysql/ -R
```
Delete the MySQL profile
```
sudo rm /etc/mysql/ -R
```

Automatically uninstall mysql

sudo apt-get autoremove mysql* --purge
sudo apt-get remove apparmor

Download version 5.5.51 from MySQL site

wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/MySQL-5.5/mysql-5.5.56-linux-glibc2.5-x86_64.tar.gz

Add mysql user group
```
sudo groupadd mysql
```
Add mysql (not the current user) to mysql user group
```
sudo useradd -g  mysql mysql
```

Extract mysql-5.5.51-linux2.6-x86_64.tar.gz to /usr/local

cd /usr/local
sudo tar -xvf mysql-5.5.49-linux2.6-x86_64.tar.gz

Create mysql folder in /usr/local

sudo mv mysql-5.5.49-linux2.6-x86_64 mysql

Set mysql directory owner and user group
```
cd mysql
sudo chown -R mysql:mysql *
```
Install the required lib package
```
sudo apt-get install libaio1
```

Execute mysql installation script

sudo scripts/mysql_install_db --user=mysql

Set mysql directory owner from outside the mysql directory
```
sudo chown -R root .
```
Set data directory owner from inside mysql directory
```
sudo chown -R mysql data
```

Copy the mysql configuration file

sudo cp support-files/my-medium.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Start mysql

sudo bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql &
sudo cp support-files/mysql.server /etc/init.d/mysql.server

Initialize root user password

sudo bin/mysqladmin -u root password '111111'

Start mysql server
```
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server start
```
Stop mysql server
```
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server stop
```
Check status of mysql
```
sudo /etc/init.d/mysql.server status
```

Enable myql on startup

sudo update-rc.d -f mysql.server defaults

Disable mysql on startup (Optional)

sudo update-rc.d -f mysql.server remove

Add mysql path to the system

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql /usr/local/bin/mysql

Now directly use the command below to start mysql
```
mysql -u root -p 
```

PS: One needs to reboot in order for the changes to take place.

Based on a Chinese blog

Works like a sharm! Thank you. Only one thing - if you install MySQL on Ubuntu 16 - do not create systemctl script - after rebooting it will create by itself automatically. — 1nstinct, Oct 07 '16 at 13:38
The reboot needs to occur between steps #16 and #17 for steps #17-21 to work. — e_i_pi, Jun 05 '17 at 04:10
did all this but ended up with dependency problems (presumably some shared libraries got into a wrong version). — Isolated Ostrich, Nov 05 '17 at 20:02
Is it really necessary to remove apparmor? I'm not seeing a line to reinstall afterwards. I don't know too about apparmor but it seems like uninstalling it is a security issue. — pmagunia, Nov 12 '17 at 22:20
Works perfectly: thank you.
Remember to restart the MySQL server after the stop/status commands — TerryS, Sep 27 '18 at 13:38

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 01 '16 at 14:28

4

Try this, First you have to remove

sudo rm /var/lib/mysql/debian-5.7.flag

then

sudo add-apt-repository 'deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty universe'

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt install mysql-server-5.6

sudo apt install mysql-client-5.6

answered Dec 01 '16 at 14:28

Tarunkant Gupta

100

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

2

This answer helped me figure out how to do it by downloading the .deb packages from MySQL dev site. The solution about adding the PPA did not do it for me.

It links to a blogpost: How to Install MySQL-5-6 on Ubuntu Precise Tricky but it works.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Apr 27 '16 at 09:47

idris

161

Leonel Martins · Answer 4 · 2017-07-26T21:58:49.273

2

A simpler alternative is to use Percona Server. By their documentation:

Installing Percona Server from Percona apt repository

Fetch the repository packages from Percona web:

wget https://repo.percona.com/apt/percona-release_0.1-4.$(lsb_release -sc)_all.deb

Install the downloaded package with dpkg. To do that, run the following commands as root or with sudo:
```
dpkg -i percona-release_0.1-4.$(lsb_release -sc)_all.deb
```
Once you install this package the Percona repositories should be added. You can check the repository setup in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/percona-release.list file.
Remember to update the local cache:
```
apt-get update
```
After that you can install the server package:
```
apt-get install percona-server-server-5.5
```

edited Jul 26 '17 at 21:58

answered Aug 30 '16 at 20:56

Leonel Martins

121

HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found – simhumileco Jul 25 '17 at 07:18
1

@simhumileco they changed the version. as of today, use wget https://repo.percona.com/apt/percona-release_0.1-4.$(lsb_release -sc)_all.deb and then dpkg -i percona-release_0.1-4.$(lsb_release -sc)_all.deb – Leonel Martins Jul 26 '17 at 21:54

Is it possible to install MySQL 5.5 or 5.6 on Ubuntu 16.04?

4 Answers4

Installing Percona Server from Percona apt repository

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