package mysql-server-5.7 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.17.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Danilo Piazzalunga]

Package mysql-server-5.7 fails to upgrade if mysql.service has been disabled (with systemctl disable).

Steps to reproduce on Ubuntu 17.04:

0. Start with a clean state:

    sudo apt purge mysql-server-core-5.7

1. Install mysql from 'zesty':

    sudo apt install mysql-server=5.7.17-0ubuntu1 mysql-server-5.7=5.7.17-0ubuntu1 mysql-server-core-5.7=5.7.17-0ubuntu1

2. Stop and disable mysql:

    sudo systemctl stop mysql.service
    sudo systemctl disable mysql.service

3. Upgrade mysql-server-5.7

    sudo apt upgrade

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.04
Package: mysql-server-5.7 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.17.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.10.0-20.22-generic 4.10.8
Uname: Linux 4.10.0-20-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.4-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Apr 27 22:59:09 2017
ErrorMessage: il sottoprocesso installato script di post-installation ha restituito lo stato di errore 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-12-27 (1216 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" - Release amd64 (20131016.1)
Logs.var.log.daemon.log:

MySQLConf.etc.mysql.conf.d.mysql.cnf: [mysql]
MySQLConf.etc.mysql.conf.d.mysqldump.cnf:
 [mysqldump]
 quick
 quote-names
 max_allowed_packet = 16M
MySQLConf.etc.mysql.mysql.conf.d.mysqld_safe_syslog.cnf:
 [mysqld_safe]
 syslog
MySQLVarLibDirListing: ['ibdata1', 'ib_logfile0', 'debian-5.7.flag', 'sakila', 'ib_buffer_pool', 'ib_logfile1', 'performance_schema', 'sys', 'employees', 'mysql_upgrade_info', 'auto.cnf', 'wda', 'mysql']
ProcCmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.0-20-generic root=UUID=392cca54-560c-4712-be6b-586150b9b6ad ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.10ubuntu2
 apt 1.4
SourcePackage: mysql-5.7
Title: package mysql-server-5.7 5.7.18-0ubuntu0.17.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: il sottoprocesso installato script di post-installation ha restituito lo stato di errore 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to zesty on 2017-04-02 (25 days ago)
upstart.mysql.override: manual

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi Danilo,
thanks for the report and a good description to reproduce!
Bugs like that help to make Ubuntu better.

Yet in this case I think this is a dup of an already known bug 1592669.
That bug is actually as superset caring also about other ways to disable the service.
But the TL;DR is the same the server has to run to do the upgrade.

Therefore I'm marking this a dup, please report and remove the dup if you think this really is a different case.